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Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People

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Society's Breakthrough
Jim Rough's new book, Society's Breakthrough! is a challenging yet thoroughly hopeful look at old and often intransigent problems. Rough offers us new ways to explore those problems. He shows us how to transcend them in favor of what truly matters to us and to our society. Most important, Rough offers an inspiring and hopeful vision of a future we can have a hand in creating ourselves. His vision of a society in which "We the People" truly govern ourselves and the institutions, organizations, and communities we create is nothing short of uplifting. And I think it's workable!
Through innovations such as "choice creating," "dynamic facilitation," "wisdom councils," and a simple, yet far-reaching amendment to the constitution that he calls the "Citizens Amendment," Rough asserts that We the People can reassert control over a system that has gone astray. Society's Breakthrough describes how such changes would enable us to "come together and seek what is best for all, rather than automatically relying on self-interested competition."
Whether Rough is right in regard to all the details of how the changes would come about, not, his vision of "a living conversation" as the basis for society-making and policy creating is brilliant. It permeates the book. It lifts you above the details, inspiring you to imagine a societal system that is "more collaborative than competitive, more thoughtful than argumentative," and that would allow us to "exercise our creativity in the service of all. Perhaps more important, though, than the vision is that Rough outlines a method that makes such a living conversation possible at any level of society.
I started the book as a skeptic however Rough led me through his proposals and reasoning with clarity, power, and convincing examples. I recommend this book to anyone interested in change in government, organizations, and business. And to anyone interested in becoming a more thoughtful and empowered citizen.

How is a new author to capture the public imagination in such times as ours?
Jim Rough's premier book has done this in spades - no, in hearts. Without
giving the story away, I urge all who are discouraged and perhaps
embarrassed at our nation's fall from global grace to get this thoughtful
little book. It suggests a simple solution by which government, governance,
and civic life in the U.S.A. might come alive again. In this very bright
first book, we find a simple way to move from today's mechanistic,
short-term/close-up, hypercapitalistic priorities into a new democracy which
applies our innate native wisdom and creates social and economic systems
which operate sustainably and intelligently.

Society's Breakthrough is a simple read with profound implications. It
proposes a nationwide awakening into a new civic vitality and creative
power. Rough proposes a take-over, a civic coup, a rebirth of democracy
which taps and activates the social intelligence of We The People. An
alternate title might have been "Reconstituting Democracy: A Constitutional
Amendment for We The People of the 21st Century."

Jim Rough writes for everyone, not for the scholar, yet he manages to convey
a profound message. He proposes that the ordinary person is not only capable
of understanding deeply complex issues, but is the BEST engineer and
designer of new choices. We The People have never actually come to power in
this country, Rough contends, yet it is We The People who are best able to
understand and interpret our social systems and create self-organized
solutions even to today's "impossible" problems. Rough proposes that we need
only implement a simple structure in order to activate the collective wisdom
that resides in We The People. The "Breakthrough" which Rough proposes is no
modest thing, being a constitutional ammendment. Its effect is to bring
about a quiet yet total revolution. Skeptical at first, I found the book
persuasive and exciting. Get it, and breathe again!

This is one of the most brilliant and compellingly comprehensive books I have read in recent time, and certainly one of less than 100, probably less than 25, and perhaps even one of the ten most important books available in English.

Everyone, including corporations, is starting to realize that Green is Good (see my list on Natural Capitalism), and that the Earth is at a tipping point. The ten high-level threats are Poverty, Infectious Disease, Environmental Degradation, Inter-State Conflict, Civil War, Genocide, Other Atrocities (e.g. kidnapping for body parts or child soldiers), Proliferation, Terrorism, and Transnational Crime.

What this author has done is pioneered the concept of Wisdom Councils at every level of society, a leap ahead of citizen involvement initiatives like Citizen's Councils formed in Denmark to study issues of national importance for legislative action. This book suggests a strategy for bringing "all" together as "We the People" where We assume our rightful role as intelligent top authority.

The author is acutely aware that we are fragmented, ignorant, inattentive, and ineffective as a collective at any level. He suggests that we got that way because we adopted a mechanistic system to govern us, where self-interest is the prevailing value, rather than dignity, sharing, open-mindedness, and so on.

He articulates a vision of a We-ocracy, a circle instead of a box, with a spirit similar to our Native American councils, where people seek what's best for all. And, he suggests a surprisingly simple social invention, not fully tested, that can make the vision real.

It was my great good fortune to meet the author personally at the Nexus for Change conference organized by Peggy Holman and others, and I found him to be one of the most sensible, down-to-earth, and focused individuals I have ever met. He told me there that collective problems require collective solutions, and I agree with him completely. It's about all of us, as well as each of us. Along with this book I recommend Tom Atlee's "Tao of Democracy" and the other books linked to below.

The author's conception of the Wisdom Council, which is now enjoying significant success and public appreciation in the Eco-topia of the Pacific Northwest, is one of a continuous Constitutional Convention with all of us as permanent delegates. It is a way "We the People" can come into existence and collectively choose topics, explore them and evolve consensus ... possibly some sensible sustainable decision or policy that goes out 200 years (what the Native Americans called 7th Generation thinking).

It's a simple approach that bridges all eight of what I call the tribes of intelligence--government, military, law enforcement, business, academia, non-governmental organizations, media networks, and most importantly, all citizens in all civil societies including social advocacy groups, labor unions, and religions.

The book describes an innocuous-seeming Constitutional Amendment to the United States Constitution. But the author inscribes the book to me, ending with "we don't need an amendment, we are out doing it." Now, there are experiments in cities and organizations in different countries, begun by ordinary citizens, proving that this strategy can work. (see www.WiseDemocracy.org) This is good news for those of us who care about society as a whole.

I recommend this book, and the three books below, to every citizen and especially to the 48% that do not vote. We get morons and thieves in power because we all do not vote and hence these charlatans are elected by a minority of dogmatic fanatics aided by less than honorable tactics such as Karl Rove has pioneered (see "Bush's Brain").

But beyond the bits of power our system currently provides to "the people," all-of-us-together can assert power over the system. This book, the books below, and the many books I connect in my varied lists, show us how. They are ammunition in our combat with the Republican and Democratic Party mafiosos. Unity08 is in my view a scam--a last ditch defense of the totally corrupt two-party "winner take all" and share the spoils system. Only the Center for Wise Democracy, Reuniting America, the Transpartisan Policy Institute, and a couple of other massive social networks now in formation, can transform political hypocrisy, corruption, and illegitimacy. Our government today, all three branches, is illegitimate. We can fix that.

We are long overdue for a popular uprising. This author, like Gandhi (see the DVD), provides for an informed non-violent revolution that is both inevitable, and unbeatable. We the People ... what a great concept. Time to honor it again, with the Wisdom Councils and the strategy of full engagement that the author outlines for us.

Bush's Brain
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
Seeing the Invisible: National Security Intelligence in an Uncertain Age
Bush's Brain
Gandhi (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)
Don't Bother Me Mom--I'm Learning!

As a college administrator, I often wonder whether I am listening to and hearing what people are telling me they need from an education. As a consultant and facilitator, I wonder whether people are really finding their own way or whether I am leading them toward ready solutions to problems I have pre-conceived. The concept of Wisdom Councils in this book presents a simple, elegant model of a process that leads groups of people to discover creative options to issues they have identified as important to them and to their organization or community.

Jim Rough has discovered a way for organizations to learn about what people they serve want and need from them in a way that allows for authentic consensus. The book, written in 2002, offers disturbing and challenging insights into the movement of our government and organizations away from activities that recognize and nourish basic human values. The intervening time has proven him right in his observations.

Jim presents a rich tapestry of historical, philosophical and practical anecdotes, stories and personal experiences that reinforce his lessons. Every leader searching for the heart and soul of their followers needs to read, reflect on and implement the the lessons of this book. Although Jim's vision of a constitutional amendment fostering the development of Wisdom Councils may not come to pass, every educator, corporate CEO, minister, and government official should consider gaining skill in this area to facilitate a better understanding of their clients, customers and communities.

I read the book "Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People" by Jim Rough recently and gained many insights from the book. In the book, it started off talking about how many people have different pieces of information required to form a complete situation of a picture. Like why we are facilitating many a times, people actually have the power to create a great insight if they are able to piece all the information together.

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Great book for anyone choosing to develop innovation and synergy in their organization or community. This is a sleeper business book any CEO could use to reinvent their organization. I have already given five copies to CEO's I know.