In the past 31 months, I have found about 40 lukewarm supporters for Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG). They probably read my TDG essay and found it a worthy concept. They have more or less told me: “Go build it, Dave. Call us when it is done.”
Sorry, I am not a political messiah who will someday shower my system on the people. People need to put in the effort and sacrifice to start this system and make it work. All other social movements required work and sacrifice.
Like Pavlov’s dog, we average people have been trained to participate in a democracy in certain ways. Yes, we vote. Yes, we protest. Yes, we write articles and post them on the internet. Yes, we discuss politics at the coffee shop. Yes, we can suggest changes, but only certain kinds of changes. So much of our effort goes toward bending the will of the overly ambitious people who want to govern us. Yet we cannot consider taking matters into our own hands by building a new democracy. We are so psychologically boxed into not considering a new democracy.
The TDG will require you to take a few steps out of that box. Here is what the TDG is asking from you.
1. Read the TDG book. You may have read the TDG essay, which has had 2,900 views since June 2019. I’m sorry to report that this essay has not inspired anyone into TDG action. It would be nice if 1% of those views have been putting together their own local TDG. But that hasn’t happened. So it’s time to read the book. The TDG book explains how all the various parts of the TDG work together. It gives you all the tools you need to learn to make the TDG work—and more importantly, a feeling that the new democracy skills are within your current life skills. Average people can build this system.
2. Tell your family, friends, and colleagues about the TDG. Use social media and email. Tell them that this Dave guy from Canada has an interesting idea on reshaping democracy for the 21st century. It needs to be investigated.
3. Commit to 10 hours a month to build your local TDG.
4. Wait to see what happens next. You might even enjoy this TDG way.
It is my belief that if 1,000 local TDGs are started in the USA, this will be an unstoppable social/political movement that will change democracy around the world. One thousand TDGs will need around 6,000 Americans! But these 6,000 Americans need to start building. They cannot wait for someone else to start! They cannot wait for a political messiah to save America. They are the messiah.
If you are still not convinced, then read my version of Pascal’s Wager. When we go through this kind of analysis, the only logical choice is to build the TDG.
Published on Medium 2021
Combatting Political Mental Illness
