All great concerns, Tony.

As for “a plug for my books,” my two books are freely available for free reading from my website. Yes, it would be nice for TDG fans to buy them and it would be nice for me to earn an income where I can work full-time on the TDG. But that just might not happen in my lifetime. It is more important that the world learns about these ideas than for me get some money in my pocket. There is no monetary barrier to learn about the TDG.

I have to agree fully with your “two clear points”. Unfettered capitalism will result in a unstable society, as predicted by Marx. And a more civil education will result in more caring citizens who know how to conduct themselves in a meeting.

In Grade 6, my class formed an arm of the Canadian Red Cross to get some practical experience in charity and civic affairs. I don’t think kids are getting that training any more. So when kids grow up to be adults, they have a hard time in formal meetings. Rather than learn the skills, they drop out. Society loses.

https://medium.com/@davevolek/roberts-rule-of-order-d69755388d33

If we insist on our current approach to collective decision making — which I shall simply describe as “I’m much smarter than everyone who disagrees with me” — the TDG is utterly pointless. As much as the TDG is a change of electoral structure, it is more about a new way to make collective decisions. I alluded to this in Chapter 3 and explained more fully in Chapter 4 and 5. We will have to be trained for this new approach. I call it a “culture of consultation.”

Chapter 6 describes how we move from HERE to THERE (Umair’s writings really fail in this regard). Most of the early TDG builders will have attitudes in place to accept this “culture of consultation” or willing to learn it (and I would include many of Umair’s fan base as possible early builders). Because the toxic attitude is kept out, the early builders can refine and improve their consultative skills. As they get better with this new culture, they will recognize those people who have these traits — and vote them into a TDG office. Maybe other way of putting this is: The TDG is a group of some pretty good people who will elect one of their better people into public office. At this stage, there won’t be any fear, bribery, or rhetoric to get elected.

And at this stage, the TDG really has no responsibility or authority in governance — except to govern itself. Those looking for status, influence, and power will not want to join at this stage.

As the TDG grows, its culture of consultation becomes more entrenched. And eventually it will start “advising” the formal government on issues where the TDG can find internal unity. That’s when the public will take serious notice. Some will see the future of governance lies with the TDG and want to join to start building their prominent position within this new structure.

Most of these people will be disappointed for two reasons. First, the voters in the TDG should, by now, be able to recognize those individuals who are more interested in personal gain than community service — and they won’t cast many votes to these new and ambitious people. Second, these ambitious people find the electioneering difficult in the TDG. By now, anyone who electioneers should not get many votes. But in case a few such people are elected at the neighborhood level, their influence will be minimal at the higher levels. There won’t be enough of them to form some kind of voting block — even if they could unite politically. The other elected representatives will not vote them to higher levels. Maybe to put this more simply, a rise to the top of the TDG requires patience, learning new skills at the lower levels, and building a reputation as a consultative decision maker.

In several ways, the TDG is teaching people how to behave in collective decision making. Just like Robert’s Rules of Order taught so many Americans and Canadians how to behave in their civil affairs, the TDG will train people in its new way.

We have to learn a new way of collective decision making. It is an integral part of moving from HERE to THERE with the TDG. I have great belief in humanity — and people can be trained. And the TDG will eventually train the world in this new way.

Today, world citizens are being trained in a contrary way by nefarious forces. We really need a counter force to this negative social engineering.

Thanks for your great questions and comments.