Most people think I’m a fool for working on my alternative democracy for 28 years and not having anything to show for it. Well, there is something driving me forward. I can’t explain it.
Two years ago, I started a new TDG project. I have been copying my TDG writing from Medium and other places to the TDG website.
My shorter TDG writings are now collected in one place for the world to see. They bring a different angle to TDG education than my TDG books. And I think they help explain “Dave Volek” a little better to my future audience.
And my shorter writings are now preserved. Being scattered around Medium, other internet forums, and my computer was not a good place for the future to find them.
Boring, Boring, Boring
Moving text around platforms was not fun. The word processor for my blog came from the 1990s. It was rather finicky. It did not like text straight from MS-Word or Medium. So I had to filter text through MS-Notepad to remove all formatting and links. Then I copied the Notepad text to the blog processor. Then reformat and relink.
Graphics were another challenge. The blog processer liked graphics only when I went through a seven-obtuse-step process to move a graphic.
This transfer of Medium articles was not work I enjoyed. Writing is so much more fun.
I had only enough patience or energy to sit with this project an hour at a time. Getting five articles done was a usual session. Life and Medium writing got a higher priority.
I hadn’t seen some articles for a long time. So I could see some improvements. When I did a little editing, the pain became a little less painful.
Mastodon
Marketing on Mastodon was another purpose for the TDG blog. I was creating a library of Mastodon posts.
When I had 50 articles on the blog, I started promoting the TDG on Mastodon. I introduce each article with a sentence or two, plop in the link, and post. That takes one to two minutes. In essence, I get more mileage from my previous writing with only a little extra effort.
When I reach the end of my library, I just start from the beginning again. For two years, Mastodon has been getting several TDG posts every day. I’ve cycled through my library 10 to 15 times.
Admittedly, my Mastodon marketing has not borne any tangible results yet. Still no TDG builders!
Circular Learning
As an educator, I am often thinking about student prerequisites. When students start a course without the proper prerequisites is place, the outcome is often not good.
But I’ve always thought we need to move away from linear learning to circular learning. In circular learning, students enter the syllabus wherever they want and move around wherever they want. In essence, a circle with no defined start and end points. I think this blog has achieved some degree of circular learning.
Internal combustion engines have many small parts. Pistons, connecting rods, crankshafts, valves, etc. have important parts to play in delivering power of exploding gasoline to the car’s wheels.
Office buildings have their own small parts. Boilers, HVACs, ventilation shafts, elevators, electrical conduit, lighting, etc. have important parts to play in keeping office workers comfortable and productive.
The TDG also has its own small parts to make it work. Unfortunately, these small parts are mostly unknown to many political watchers. Also unfortunately, our 2020’s attention span is lower than a generation ago. “Too long, didn’t read” becomes the reason not to investigate, especially when celebrities are ignoring the TDG as well. Trying to learn all these TDG parts seems to be too much for many political readers. They prefer the known ways, which are not working so well these days.
But the blog changes that dynamic between the TDG and its potential audience. One section of the blog is called “TDG Mechanics.” It has 45 articles, each describing one feature of the TDG. Each article is about a three-minute read. As the reader goes through some of these articles, he/she gains a sense the TDG is a well-designed machine. Different parts have different functions, but when all these functions are working well together, they should produce the democracy we so yearn for.
Remember that our current democracies are also machines of many different parts. Free speech, free press, periodic elections, check-and-balances, separation of powers, etc. etc. all contribute to western democracy elevating a society above other societies with inferior systems. We could argue that some of these parts are now wearing down, right?
Maybe my TDG book is too long for today’s readers. But TDG Mechanics will provide a good understanding of the TDG with about an hour of reading. And the reader chooses which parts to read!
So I invite readers to spend one hour with TDG Mechanics.
Pick a title that interests you. Click the link and read. Then return to the table of contents to find another title.
After an hour of such reading, you will have a better understanding of how this TDG works than you did before. Yes, the TDG has many parts. But like internal combustion engines, office buildings, and western democracies, it is not that difficult to understand the individual and collective functions of the parts.
You may even find the TDG is a better option than voting, protesting, and hoping the Democratic Party actually governs for the people. You might even become TDG builders!
Conclusion
The TDG blog transfer project is done. There are 520 articles in this blog. A small victory in the many steps to make the TDG better known.
I’m still writing articles for Medium — and eventually the new writings will find their way to this blog. But, for now, I’m glad not to be moving text from processor to processor to processor any more.
Well, maybe not.
My next TDG project is to build a TDG wiki, using the software from Wikipedia. This should find a different audience. And maybe the wiki format can get past the TLDR crowd.
Most of the future wiki articles are already written. So I will mostly be moving text around — and formatting, linking, and adding graphics. Hopefully the processor of the wiki is easier to deal with.
Published on Medium 2025
A Glimpse of Our Future Democracy
