Thinking Citizen Blog — The Orion Revolution III — Harambee! The Party Of We And Yes! United We Stand, Divided We Fall! All Hands On Deck!
Thinking Citizen Blog — Sunday is Political Process Reform, Campaign Strategy, and Candidate Selection Day
Today’s Topic: The Orion Revolution III — Harambee! The Party of We and Yes! United We Stand, Divided We Fall! All Hands on Deck!
You may have missed it. Last week, I announced that I am once again running for the President of the United States under the banner of the Party of We and Yes. If you missed it, please check out the first link below.
Now down to today’s business. What is the first premise of the Party of We and Yes? What is the second premise? What is the third?
This week I made a wonderful new friend from Kenya who taught me a new word: Harambee!
Which is a celebratory cry meaning we can do this together. AI translates it “All Hands on Deck” or more awkwardly “All Pull Together.” I like to think of it as a variation on the theme of “Hallelujah!”
We are all crew on the ship of our little blue planet. We must find common ground. Defining that ground precisely matters. We must focus on the positive, the shared, and the future.
Will you come aboard?
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
CHALLENGE #1 A PRECISE DEFINITION OF OUR COMMON GROUND, OUR SHARED DREAM (Rumi was a 13th century Persian Sufi mystic, a poet, theologian, and jurist who is oddly, paradoxically, and wonderfully, now the best selling poet in 21st century America)
1. My best formulation of my dream for America aned the world: “That every child born reaches their full potential for joy, productivity, and responsibility.”
2. Do you know of a better one? If so, send it to me and the rest of us. If not, share this one with everyone you know and love and ask them to do likewise. If you have the skill set, make a TikTok video of it!
3. This is not only a dream, a vision, it is our common shared interest. This is the deep meaning of what economists call “the invisible hand.”
NB: The great paradox at the heart of economics is that the greatest wealth accrues to the person who brings the most joy to the most people because the most people are willing to shell out their own hard-earned money for your products because they either reduce your suffering or increase your pleasure. To put it in the more technically precise language of Andrew Carnegie, “Capitalism turns luxuries into necessities. Communism turns necessities into luxuries.” As Venezuelans and Cubans know so well.
CHALLENGE #2 A STRATEGIC PLAN FOR ACHIEVING THAT DREAM — HOW TO REDEFINE THE MEANING OF THE WEEK
1. The only way to realize that wonderful dream is high standards and high expectations in behavior, academics, arts, and athletics in homes, schools, and communities.
2. The only way to teach is by example.
3. Have you committed to the most demanding, rigorous curriculum ever developed on the planet?
NB: That, of course, would be my “Thinking Citizenship Week” and “Seven Joys Week” program — have you assigned to each day one of the seven basic joys of the liberal arts? and to each day one of the seven vitally important civic issues? If not you, who? if not now, when?
CHALLENGE #3 A DAILY ROUTINE CONSISTENT WITH THE STRATEGIC PLAN — the basic unit of thought is the “Orion.” And all Orions are not created equal. Orions are simple, complete, organized, prioritized, and provisional.
1. Reading without writing is like eating without digesting. Writing without an analytical framework is like digesting without enzymes. What joy have deepened today by researching it to learn something new related to it? Have you digested what you learned through writing? Have you published what your wrote to get feedback from others who may have different perspectives than you?
2. Good writing obeys three rules: the rule of one, the rule of three, and the rule of seven. What is your main point? What are your top three points? How about your top seven? The seven-star hourglass Orion diagram is meant as a graphic reminder of these three laws.
3. Good writing comes with images and numbers. Pictures, as you know, are worth a thousand words — but that’s on average. They are distributed in bell curve. Some are worthless, others are worth billions.
NB: The same is true for numbers. Is there a greater graphic-quantitative metaphor than my Orion diagram? Remember that metaphors are bridges to understanding. The Orion diagram is a bridge to the promised land where every child born reaches their full potential for joy, productivity, and responsibility.
Will you take my hand? Shall we dance over the rainbow together?
Please make an Orion of a joy or a civic issue that matters deeply to you.
And share it with the rest of us. Make my day!
FOOTNOTE — Harambee! The Coat of Arms of Kenya — phrase made popular by the somewhat controversial figure of Jomo Kenyatta “Father of the Nation”
1. A looser translation could be: “We Are All Family.”
2. Or “Together!” or “Together Now!”
3. Or looser still, “We Shall Overcome.”
NB: Or looser still, “Amazing Grace.” But my favorite is: “Hallelujah!”
Related concept: “Ubuntu,” the Bantu term that evokes community action and community responsibility. Ubuntu is sometimes translated, “I am because we are.”
See the last link below for a video of Nelson Mandela explaining the meaning of “ubuntu.”
Thinking Citizen Blog — The Orion Revolution II — Gearing Up For 2028, It’s Now Or Never, Seriously!
Thinking Citizen Blog — The Party of We and Yes (Part II)
Thinking Citizen Blog — The Party of We and Yes
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to political process or campaign strategy or 2020 candidate selection or anything else for that matter.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day or change their thinking. Or to consolidate in your own memory something worth remembering that might otherwise be lost. Or to clarify or deepen your own understanding of something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
