Australians: My friend Sally Gibson, who was central to the TV miniseries "The Dismissal", has just done an interesting podcast interview with Nicole Chvastek on the research, the series, & the event itself.

It's catching on that our ever-increasing problems stem from an obsolete democratic design. So fixes are being proposed: 'Let's do direct democracy!' 'Let's do deliberative democracy!' 'End the media monopolies—un-capture information!'

The revelations about Vietnam didn't prevent Iraq. The revelations about Iraq didn't prevent Ukraine. In the absence of a political system that demands accountability, & a media system that gives us a picture of reality, we blunder into war after war.

IMO we are at a 'paradoxical moment', analogous to the Great Depression/New Deal. Things are bad, but the table is laid for a social transformation: 1. We have a 300,000-year genetic endowment of equality & co-operation (civilization, monopoly & war are an eye-blink)

"𝗜𝗻 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁." - 𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙖 𝙋𝙞𝙩𝙠𝙞𝙣, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙧𝙚𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙮 The Western political system should be seen as being on death watch. It has delivered us war, inequality & monopoly.

Dick Cheney was state capture incarnate This resulted in the Iraq War, which killed a million people including 4,400 Americans A war he profited from greatly If there's one thing to be inferred from his wretched life, it is that wealth & political power must be consigned to their separate domains

I doubt 'the West' minds losing men & materiel at a high rate in Ukraine, as every round expended has to be replaced in the inventory. That means profits for the donors who bankroll the politicians who launch the wars. In policy terms, 'the West' = corporations, not politicians or people.

Our prime responsibility, if we want to end genocide & ecocide—war & homelessness—is to relocate wealth & political power to their separate domains.

Microplastics in the water, heavy metals in the food chain. These are not one-offs. They come from the same place as falling real wages, financial crashes & drug epidemics.

Currently all our information is controlled by a small handful of media & social media billionaires. Does this sound normal or healthy?

Regularly electing new governments & leaders—who presided over decades of decline—has not yet convinced Westerners that their political system needs replacing. #ThirdDraftDemocracy

Our crises go back to plutocracy: to Organized Money capturing government policy. If we don’t fix that, we don’t fix much. Elect someone from the Right—or the Left. They’ll be subject to the same donor pressures that captured Trump, Biden, & all who preceded them:

Our political framework seems designed to recycle profitable crises. Wars, pandemics & financial crashes transfer trillions from poor, middle class & government to the already-rich. Governments wave it through.

We don’t have social, economic & environmental problems—we have a democracy problem.

The hallmark of our era is the transition from flawed democracy to unaccountable elite rule. (Followed by falling real incomes, Permanent War, mass homelessness, collapsing human health...) But this remarkable transition is absent from the national conversation (symptoms aside).

Democracy may be the best form of government, but its current incarnation is laughably capturable. Indeed, nothing in the free market compares with the return-on-investment (ROI) from political donations.

My favourite graph: usage of the word 'cure' in English since the rise of pharmaceutical medicine. The decline was surely because curing illness (being less profitable than treating it longterm) quietly fell out of favor. The public narrative had to be adjusted.

A year on from the publication of my book, getting anyone to think on Level 1 is still hard. Most people remain fixated on Level 2 (symptoms)—& on leaders, legislation, policy ('treatments'): still believing there will be answers there. #ThirdDraftDemocracy

Declining public health, rising inequality. War abroad, disunity at home. The root cause is not hard to identify. Wealth has captured policy:

The US #media is controlled by six companies.⁠ In Italy it’s seven, in Britain it’s four. In Canada & Australia it’s three. Social is worse again. You can't vote wisely when all your information is selected for you by billionaires.

The decline of the West stems, more than anything, from the failure of its version of democracy Our representative system doesn’t work very well because: 1. Legislatures are capturable by wealth 2. Power attracts non-normal people (dissociated, a bit narcissistic, able to lie easily…)

If anyone here is still on X, this is an (audio) podcast I did today in the US: x.com/KissMyCarol/...

The characters represent the Homo sapiens timeline in 10,000-year increments: *****************************+ The first 29 = hunting, gathering & social equality. The + at the end = agriculture, settlement & social hierarchies.

The newer democracies are suffering the same decline as their Western counterparts. That’s because the model they imported contains all the flaws of the original. The second, Euro-American ‘draft’ of the democratic experiment is reaching senility. #ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy #Plutocracy

The 'flee to Mars' thing is not exactly urgent. The Sun won't destroy the Earth for about a billion years. That's 14 million human lifetimes away. Escapism is a neurosis.

Our main issue isn't the environment, war or inequality. Our main issue is the mechanics of power - who is allowed to decide what. Fix that & you fix a lot. #ThirdDraftDemocracy books2read.com/thirddraft

If we want to rescue our societies, most reforms being proposed today would be mere punctuation. Democratic accountability is dead, liberty is vanishing, & governments break their own laws. Usefully to our politicians & their sponsors, polarisation is rampant.

"𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐬, 𝐈 𝐩𝐫𝐚𝐲, 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬, 𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫." - 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐬, 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐬 The ‘left v. right’ division stands alone in its power to shape society—by turning people with a handful of reconcilable differences into mindless, warring tribes.

My book contains a few simple ideas: - Modern politics can't produce the solutions we crave. - It's not bad leaders & bad policies (they're only symptoms) - it's the design of the system. books2read.com/thirddraft

#Democracy lost its geopolitical clout because its environmental threats evolved and it did not. Like an animal species that remains static as those around it develop longer claws & faster speeds. Failure to adapt, in a moving world, spells not stability but decline.

Done by musicians right around the world, for International Day of the Disappeared. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJsW...

We don't expect Greenland to export mangoes or a shoe factory to produce diamonds. So do we think that #media owned by billionaires is likely to produce a savvy public? Or that #governance controlled by wealth will produce good policy?

War, #Pharma, #inequality... We can't oppose anything we dislike till we democratise - because there is no 'we'. That is, the people have not only been disempowered but carefully fragmented, via divide & rule. We can't fight back in our present state. We need tools. #ThirdDraftDemocracy

I’m always a bit shocked when activists think on the level of symptoms... War Inequality Public health crises (etcetera)

Our oligarchy can be ‘political’ (left-leaning, right-leaning) when needed. But its main focus is on gaining control of the people, rules & institutions by which politics is made. That's why our activism & our politics come to so little: we’re not even playing the same game. #ThirdDraftDemocracy

During the last couple of generations, there was a slow, 'boiling frog' transition from democracy & prosperity to oligarchy & scarcity. It's sometimes called neoliberalism: every human activity -child-raising, leisure time, health - kowtows to profit. #CivicEngagement #DemocracyWorks

Lots of talk now about the disintegration of democracy. I don't think the US has been a Republic or a democracy since (at least) Nov 22, 1963. A reformist president was murdered in broad daylight, & all 18 subsequent administrations covered it up. #Democracy #ThirdDraftDemocracy

Any political party would attract more support if it pledged to support a constitutional bill that introduced: - Deliberative democracy - Direct democracy - Proportional representation - Zero money in politics #ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy #PoliticalBooks

This is me in a B-52 bomb crater in northern Cambodia, ~10y ago. There were craters all through this forest. But no bombs were dropped on the adjoining village. As the village was a sitting duck, the locals believe the American pilots can only have done this on purpose, to avoid hurting people.

Increasingly, our politics spins its wheels. Why do we fixate on it? Is this a kind of neurosis—a 'displacement activity'? Like tidying the house as an avalanche bears down?

Most democracy activists want to defend democracy against its enemies. Hold the line. I don't think that's working. The way to defend democracy is to expand it.

Falling real wages, declining public health, overpriced healthcare. $36-trillion deficits, polarisation, low-grade politicians. Do we keep attacking these things individually (whack-a-mole)? #ThirdDraftDemocracy

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝗹/𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗱𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗺𝗮 𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁: In modern democracies, we are the 'principal' & legislators the 'agent'. Most of the evils of governance are 'agency costs': things politicians do for their own benefit, & their donors' benefit - but not ours:

War, pollution, the public health crisis. Falling real wages, unaffordable healthcare, gun violence. Democratisation cures all of it. #NonFictionReads #CitizenPower #PoliticalInnovation

Left v. Right is our uber-psyop Beneath that distraction, the work of modern politics is to transfer our wealth to the corporations that have captured our legislatures. Few who oppose this work will get endorsement by a major party, campaign money, or media coverage. #DemocracyWorks #FixDemocracy

Humans wouldn't have survived a million years of ice ages & genetic bottlenecks if we weren't good at co-operation & compromise. That capacity hasn't gone anywhere. It's just been interrupted by an obsolete political design. #ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy #DemocracyWorks #Politics #NonFiction

Some reviews: 𝗠𝘆 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘆𝗲𝗮𝗿. - 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳 𝗚𝘂𝘆 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙩 𝗥𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹. 𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗱𝗲. - 𝗗𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗱 𝗟𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿, 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗹𝗲𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 #Democracy #ThirdDraftDemocracy #DemocracyWorks #Books

My recent book interview with Kim Iversen. Our topics: * War, inequality & govt corruption: insoluble in the current political framework * And: #PoliticalReform, #SystemChange, #DirectDemocracy, #DeliberativeDemocracy, #ProportionalRepresentation, #VoteByMail, #Subsidiarity, #Referendums...

When there's state capture, voting for the other party won’t change much. Our disasters can't end under the present system, as its goal is to generate profitable crises. (Wars, financial crashes, chronic disease epidemics...) It will end once this system has been replaced by rational governance.

1/3 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗽. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝘂𝗹𝗽𝗿𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆. ('𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗳𝘁/𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗿𝘆.') 𝗗𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗰 '𝗺𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗰𝘀' 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗱? #ThirdDraftDemocracy