A Moment of Possibility

I had the pleasure yesterday of meeting in Providence for coffee with Bill Densmore. Bill is one of a small group who are coming together as RulesChange.org. Bill enters this conversation with a background in Journalism.

Bill told me this story. His Dad was a corporate executive in the old days, when corporations worked for all their stakeholders, not just their market-quoted share price.  That makes Bill aware that something has changed. That we can't keep doing the things we are doing, the way we are doing them. Bill reports that he finds, as a Journalist, that we are now in a moment of possibility. To say that we need to make this kind of fundamental change is no longer received as heretical, whereas even just a couple of years ago, it might be. However, Bill sees lots of silos. Different people banding together around single issues they are passionate about, but not interacting with other people who are equally passionate about different, but aligned issues. Bill sees a need and an opportunity for some form of umbrella organizing activity, that gets these silos interacting, while also maintaining their own focus, integrity and authenticity.

Maybe Evergreen?

It touches many issues, empowers actions on all the issues that it touches, but does not dictate policy to any of them.  To the contrary, we need to engage with all these silos, so they can inform Evergreen with the right policies on each of their substantive issues: income inequality/economic inclusiveness; basic research, education and innovation; climate risk, environmental degradation and ecological integrity.  And many others.

PS - Bill also expressed anxiety about the survival of Journalism in the social media age. We agree that is a problem. How can you have democracy without Journalism?