“On 1 May 1851, the Great Exhibition opened in London, instigated by the [Royal] Society of Arts[, Manufactures and Commerce]. …. The idea grew out of a series of smaller exhibitions the Society had been running in the late 1840s to showcase new inventions and industry.”
Inventions and industry are not really at the creative edge of the future as our new frontier in the 21st Century, as much as they were in the 19th Century.
Institutional accountability is.
And the innovation in institutional accountability that frontiers the creative edge of future wellbeing for humanity living at a planetary scale, within planetary limits, today, is citizenship through deliberation, not so much to decide what the law can, should and will be made to be, as to decide how the law as it already is can, should and will be upheld and enforced.
In particular, the laws of Money and Finance, and Enterprise and the Economy.
And within the laws of Money and Finance, especially the fiduciary duties of Forever Money aggregated into Workforce Pensions and Civil Society Endowments for allocation to Enterprise to curate the Economy for assurance of income security ongoing into a dignified forever, for so many, directly, as a private benefit, that it is also, of necessity, for us all, consequently, as a public good.
These laws already establish accountability to our common sense, as prudent people familiar with such matters. This creates a right and a responsibility on each of us, and all of us, as citizens, to take the time to make the effort to makes ourselves familiar with such matters, and to each make our own personal and individual contributions to conversation at the vanguard of public discourse, to evolve that common sense to fit the changing challenges of our changing times.
Deliberation, through citizens juries and assemblies, offers proceedings in places that each of us can participate in, to exercise our right and our responsibility, as citizens of our planetary economy, to hold our institutions of forever money accountable to our shared common sense of their fiduciary prudence and loyalty.
I take inspiration from the RSA, and the Great Exhibition, for the design of these events, as “a series of smaller [deliberations]” leading to an episodic Great Deliberation.
Imagining an inaugural Great Deliberation on the fringe of the Edinburgh Festival fringe
the “tree” of artistic performances spreads seeds of popular participation
In collaboration with The Deliberation Gateway Network, a thematic network within the RSA, I am working to organize an inaugural Festival of Citizens Deliberation on the fringe of the Edinburgh Festival fringe in Edinburgh Scotland, in August-September 2007 (IF I can pull things together in time – and right now, that is a BIG “if”).
“The Fringe is a three-week festival of performing arts that takes place in Edinburgh every August. Its story dates back to 1947, when eight theatre groups turned up uninvited to perform at the Edinburgh International Festival.
“The Edinburgh International Festival was an initiative created to celebrate and enrich European cultural life in the wake of the Second World War.
“Not being part of the official programme of the International Festival didn’t stop these performers, they just went ahead and staged their shows on the fringe of the Festival anyway, coining the phrase and our name – the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since the dawn of this spontaneous artistic movement, millions have flocked to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to produce, and to enjoy art of every genre.”
My ambition, in collaboration with Deliberation Gateway Network, is to stage a dramatic performance of a Citizens Jury sitting in Judgement of Pensions
In Judgement of Pensions
for failing to finance a Future of Energy Sufficiency complete with Habitat Longevity and Social Equity, on a planetary scale and within planetary limits.
Drama is about conflict and conflict “has the power to stir [human’s] blood” (19th Century Chicago Architect and Urban Planner, Danial Birnbaum).
So the idea is to open with conflict, to capture people’s attention, then close with connection, to reward people’s engagement, through a follow-on series of citizens assemblies, for deliberating on the question of whether or not the jury got it right, during the trial.
I fantasize about engaging The Red Brigade to walk, silently and solemnly, through the creativity of the Fringe, inviting attendees to follow this living metaphor for the blood we share with all living things, as they weave their way through installations on the New Art of Money and Finance, to sit in the gallery of the Court of Common Sense, and watch the proceedings in our Jury Trial of pension failure to finance “a comfortable retirement on a livable planet” (Arketa Institute) for populations of so many current and future retirees who are so representative of all of us, that this is also a failure to finance security in a dignified future for us all, where the Oil Slicks sit, in silent judgement.
The trial is currently imagined as being in three counts of causing a crisis of existential proportions for humanity living at a planetary scale, within planetary limits, in the 21st Century, and beyond:
Count One: Breach of Promise
A pension is a promise, from a workplace to a workforce, subsidized by all of us, a citizens and taxpayers and consumers, of “a comfortable retirement on a livable planet”. Today’s pensions are breaching that promise, by financing of future of catastrophic climate change.
Count Two: Defective Product
The pension is a mutual aid society for delivering assurance of income security in a dignified future. But prevailing pension practice of Asset Ownership financing Corporate Power through the financial mathematics of Exit by Sale to extract profit from selling price, is an explosively toxic mix of recklessly unreckoning forever extraction that is hurtling us towards climate catastrophe.
Count Three: Fiduciary Faithlessness
A pension is a social trust, subject to fiduciary duties of prudence in the exercise of the capacity derived from character, under the circumstances then prevailing, in undivided loyalty to aims. But prevailing fiduciary practice of Asset Ownership financing Corporate Power through Exit by Sale is bending the arc of pension loyalty, away from a comfortable retirement on a livable planet, and towards the sale, and the selling price, in disloyalty to their purpose.
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Bending the arc in the wrong direction
Our concept for the trial is that it will be curated, but unscripted. Somewhat in the manner of Reality TV.
Details are still being worked out.
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for making your own individual contributions to local community engagement in globally curated conversations for articulating an adaptively evolving common sense of fiduciary prudence in the exercise of capacity derived from character, under the circumstances then prevailing, in undivided loyalty to aims
Shifting to Equity Paybacks 