Last week a new Gallup poll showed that Congress’ approval ratings continue to register at record low numbers, and there’s no shortage of political pundits to point out the places where they think the system has broken. Co-Intelligence Institute founder and author Tom Atlee believes that he has found the missing link, and his upcoming book Empowering Public Wisdom: A Practical Vision of Citizen-Led Politics (on sale August 7, 2012, Evolver Editions) lays out a new government model that would give the public voice a position alongside elected officials in lawmaking and enforcement.
In keeping with the title and central focus of the book — to give the people more of a say as well as an official ranked Council position in public policy-making — Atlee has empowered readers to share their opinions on the ideas he plans to present in two chapters of the book, and potentially shape how those chapters will finally appear in published form. The two chapters, entitled “Empowering Public Wisdom” and “Rising from the Grassroots,” were each published on bestselling author Daniel Pinchbeck’s alternative webzine, Realitysandwich.com, and they will remain on the site for a limited time. The author promises to use the information he receives from commenters in shaping what will appear in the published book, and so far, many of the comments have been constructive, if not overwhelmingly supportive of the author’s fresh yet realistic approach to government.
Evolver Editions is an imprint of non-profit, independent publisher North Atlantic Books, whose Associate Publisher Doug Reil released this statement on the decision to support Atlee’s unusual approach:
“Here at North Atlantic Books, we’re excited not only to be publishing Tom Atlee’s new book, Empowering Public Wisdom: A Practical Vision of Citizen-led Politics, but also to present large sections of the book for public review and comment prior to publication. Presented on the platform of Realitysandwich.com, collaborators on our Evolver Editions imprint, the process will allow for a crowd-sourced editorial perspective in keeping with the theme of the book, making this a truly co-created project between author, publisher, and readers.”
In “Rising from the Grassroots,” Atlee adds notes encouraging readers to weigh in, and, if they agree with his opinions and ideas, take action.
“If you understand this chapter and have resources and passion to bring its vision into reality I would love to hear from you. I view the creation of this online public wisdom-generating capacity to be the highest leverage idea in this book. If we succeeded in building it well, it could transform our political world within months.”
Read each chapter and give your opinion in the comments, here:
http://www.realitysandwich.com/empowering_public_wisdom
http://www.realitysandwich.com/empowered_public_wisdom_rising_grassroots
This book will be released just months after new Reform Party 2012 presidential candidate and ex-CIA officer Robert David Steele’s book with Evolver Editions, The Open-Source Everything Manifesto, which goes on sale June 5, 2012. A dialogue between Atlee and Steele on the subject of “co-intelligence” — a shared, integrated form of intelligence — can be found on Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-david-steele/tom-atlee-questions-rober_b_767817.html.
Image by jeroen_bennink on Flickr Courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing
