To help save the world, I joined a political party in Canada — hoping that somehow my superior intellect would put some logic and common sense into government. That was 1986, and I rose to lower middle management in the party. Maybe three, four meetings a month. Six years later, I came to the conclusion that I had been wasting my time. But my time did show me why politics is fairly dysfunctional. And somehow I invented another system of governance.

Being a disgruntled political worker does not give me the credentials to be acknowledged by the celebrity-seeking world. So for five years, I kept my invention to myself. Then in 1997, I realized that all the acknowledged experts really don’t have a clue as to why we got ourselves into this big hole. Thus they don’t know how to get us out. The experts can’t save us.

Umair is fairly good at explaining the state we are in. Sometimes the sensationalism is a bit over the top, but it also draws attention to causes that need attention drawn to it. But I’ve been following Umair for almost a year, and I have yet to find a tangible solution from him.

Here is my solution. We have to rebuild democracy from the ground up. This will mean talking with your neighbors and working with your neighbors to build your local TDG constitution. As you are building this constitution, you will be learning how to make consultative decisions. You will get better at consulation as the TDG matures. Probably in about a decade, your local TDG, merged with other TDGs, will have found a process to find the best minds in your community and a culture of consultation — and you can start commenting on various societal issues.

So what path is more likely to move the world forward? My path? Or reading another 300 Umair articles this year? Hmmmm.

Last Friday, I put the finishing touches on my new novel. It is about a few early TDG builders. You will read a story of average people putting the pieces of this new democracy together. I’m sure many Umair readers will say something like: “Hey, I can do that. It’s not that hard.”

The novel is available for a free read from my website.

Diary of a Future Politician: How an Average American Saves America