We are sensing the emergence of a "new spirit" in American politics. New ideas are needed, new visions must come together. We are proposing to convene a conversation among writers and activists and concerned citizens who sense these possibilities, and want to bring their ideas into a meaningful discussion.

Our objective is to create a "co-creative process" that brings as many contributing voices together as possible, and leads towards an activist agenda and proposed solutions. We are anticipating that the general form of this "solution" will be some kind of network, that engages talented and critical participation from everywhere, adding substance and depth to the larger political conversation, and incorporating direct involvement of actual political leadership.

Contents

1. A Crisis of Leadership -- dangers and failures of our current system
2. Facets of a Holistic Response -- dimensions of a solution: what kind of response is called for; how and why we can and must respond in an integral way that brings all factors into a common framework
3. Network of Circles -- responding to the crisis in a way that meets all our integral constraints: an activist proposal and design for a network-based response to this crisis, that addresses all the problems we have identified and incorporates all our criteria for a solution

A CRISIS OF LEADERSHIP
A detailed critique regarding issues and problems in the flow of energy and decisions in the current fabric of American politics; why leadership tends to be crushed by a media-dominated electoral process, and why this is becoming increasingly dangerous. In simplest terms, leaders tend to be critically constrained by polls if they want to be elected. This creates a "destructive feedback loop" -- polling forces leaders into over-simplification and twisted agendas, subjecting their proposals to popular marketing dynamics and carrying them along in prevailing social trends. These factors alone can severely damage the quality of our leadership.

Other destructive factors include:

• undue influence of big money and lobbyists/special interests; this tends to distort policy
• lack of "resonance" among political leaders; they don't know or understand each other; they do not work together well
• divisive partisan spirit is fracturing and injuring the collective genius of our society -- we are making too many mistakes
• the people are losing faith -- or have already entirely lost faith -- in our institutions, and in our leaders and their policies; this builds a dangerous climate of suspicion and mistrust and wounds the spirit of the nation
• lack of a holistic context; issues are interdependent and connected, but we tend to legislate policy in terms of single issues; this fragments the legislative process and makes bureaucracy and enforcement inefficient or unworkable
• sheer complexity -- issues today are highly multi-dimensional and interdependent, and it is not reasonable to expect single individuals to master them; a sophisticated new system of computer support for managing issues is needed

• "Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid", by Joe Klein (2006)
• "The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track", by Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann (2006)
• "The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right", by Rabbi Michael Lerner (2006)

FACETS OF A HOLISTIC RESPONSE
We must conceive and devise a holistic and inclusive response to this situation, bringing all our best ideas together, into a single activist agenda. I expect to present an initial design and hypothesis, in the context of a co-creative and democractic process that can incorporate the insights and suggestions of everyone in the conversation.

This network already offers hundreds of well-documented insights into The One, as inspiring perspectives into how this new framework can and must be shaped.

Other references include:

• Total Revolution by Vimala Thakar, a woman spiritual activist from India, who outlines the basics of a holistic politics: how and why everything must be embedded in a non-fragmented integral context
• The Search for Cohesion in an Age of Fragmentation by Don Beck, founder of Spiral Dynamics

NETWORK OF CIRCLES - A POLITICAL SUPPORT NETWORK
As I see things right now, it looks to me like the most powerful and effective way to develop these ideas, and become directly influential, is to evolve ways that concerned citizens everywhere can begin to directly engage the political process itself, through a network-based system of interacting "circles" or small groups, each with their own area of interest and expertise, and directly linked to participating political leaders.

We are conceiving a sophisticated design for our Network of Circles, and are supposing that the right kind of design can capture and empower the creative spirit of our society, in ways that fully express our personal freedom, yet bring together our highest collective intentions and possibilities. "Circle" is a profound concept, with subtle meaning not only as a form of spiritual gathering, but also as an element of sacred geometry or mystical ontology. We are supposing that these deep ontological elements can come together in an inspiring and organic network process of high transformative potential.

I am supposing that the Network of Circles concept can accomplish the following:

• Create a holistic and inclusive and co-creative process
  Draw together and empower "the collective genius and wisdom of an entire society"
• Organically weave together the necessary "integral context"
  The motivational dynamics of the network process itself can create and weave into detail the "holistic context" that is otherwise almost impossible to create or design. Rather than attempt to conceive or design this on our own, let the context emerge in an integral (interconnected network) framework, under the motivational drive of everyone who sees the vision and wants to be part of the network. 10,000 independent activists, each coming to the network for their own reasons, can add 10,000 factors and issues to the larger process, all of them interconnected into a single integral web.

• This approach is entirely positive; it does not involve a critique or attack against existing leaders or policies; one of the network's primary purposes is to provide support and assistance to political leaders - helping them overcome isolation and assisting with research and insight
• Engagement in this network is entirely voluntary and driven by free-will at the local level; the process runs 24 hours a day, and is accessible from any point of access to the internet
• This is a grass-roots organizing process -- it opens a pathway to direct participation and meaningful involvement by any person who wants to become involved
• Any existing political group can become a factor in this network, in any way they wish
• The energy of this network can be entirely tuned to Spirit through basic principles of group resonance; this amounts to a spiritual revitalization of the political process, without any sort of sectarianism
• This network is inherently trust-building; it is healing, inclusive, uplifting, transformative
• The role of the network is consultative, advisory, and "transpartisan"; it supports our leadership in a wide variety of ways, helping them stay balanced in the context of ethical challenges, and bringing to them a deep range of expertise as it is found anywhere in our society
• The project does not depend on legislation; no changes to the existing political system are required or proposed
• The project is inherently inexpensive and can expand universally on a minimal budget; there is no inherent cost of involvement

• Network of Circles - Initial network design and proposal
• Network of Circles - initial design sketch and proposal (Word document), May 2006
• Santa Barbara Interfaith Voters Initiative - Discussion framework, July 2006