Rebuilding the Centre County Pa Green Party

Wanting to make sure I didn't accidentally step on any toes, I wrote the Pennsylvania Greens Secretary, Blyden Potts - I'm hoping to be able to publish the exchange of letters soon.

http://www.gpofpa.org/index.php?module=htmlpages&func=display&pid=2

He immediately checked my voters registration (which is libertarian - a lot of internet people are libertarian), which I thought was a good sign - that they are aware of the mathematics of politics, and the numbers of registered greens in this area.

I'm not planning on changing my registration yet - I'm interested in the political potential of the gren party, but I'm not convinced yet it has the organization and the message that can really influence people in these times.

I'm a little concerned that the greens might be stuck back in the 20th century, and not really capable of doing the internet grassroots thing. The future of politics is online.

I hear that!

if there is a green party presence anyhere around here it hides better than a mink near a muskrat stream.

I pretty often contemplate trying to start one here, but I'm not necessarily the best person to spearhead such a project.

I exchanged some emails with official green party types near philly - when they learned I was registered libertarian and wasn't necessarily ready to change that, and only wanted to help greens organize here, they seemed to lose interest.

Eco-Action, the psu club, might be greens, I don't know.

You got any thoughts on how to organize? I think greens will have a much bigger role to play in the near future. Right now we have the PRO-pro-corporate party, (the republicans), and the Pro-corporate party (the democrats) - and neither party has policies that make any sense.

well, if anything starts to happen I'll donate a web presence to the cause. It'd be easy for me to set up and manage a centralpagreens webs site.

meetings are harder for me, as I imagine they might be for nearly anyone. but, one does what one must when the devil drives - so I'd even try to get to meetings.

Here's the green party's main website:

http://www.gp.org/index.php

They are planning on updating the platform, which has been much the same since 2004:

http://www.gp.org/platform.shtml

I think their platform is way too long - a condensed verion is needed, a one page or less summary.

Their "Ten Key Values" comes closest to a summary I figure:

10 KEY VALUES

1. GRASSROOTS DEMOCRACY

Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect his or her life and should not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, we will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. We will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process.

2. SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

All persons should have the rights and opportunity to benefit equally from the resources afforded us by society and the environment. We must consciously confront in ourselves, our organizations, and society at large, barriers such as racism and class oppression, sexism and homophobia, ageism and disability, which act to deny fair treatment and equal justice under the law.

3. ECOLOGICAL WISDOM

Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature.

We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.

4. NON-VIOLENCE

It is essential that we develop effective alternatives to society's current patterns of violence. We will work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction, without being naive about the intentions of other governments.

We recognize the need for self-defense and the defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal, community and global peace.

5. DECENTRALIZATION

Centralization of wealth and power contributes to social and economic injustice, environmental destruction, and militarization. Therefore, we support a restructuring of social, political and economic institutions away from a system which is controlled by and mostly benefits the powerful few, to a democratic, less bureaucratic system. Decision-making should, as much as possible, remain at the individual and local level, while assuring that civil rights are protected for all citizens.

6. COMMUNITY BASED ECONOMICS

Redesign our work structures to encourage employee ownership and workplace democracy. Develop new economic activities and institutions that will allow us to use our new technologies in ways that are humane, freeing, ecological and accountable, and responsive to communities.

Establish some form of basic economic security, open to all.

Move beyond the narrow "job ethic" to new definitions of "work," jobs" and "income" that reflect the changing economy.

Restructure our patterns of income distribution to reflect the wealth created by those outside the formal monetary economy: those who take responsibility for parenting, housekeeping, home gardens, community volunteer work, etc.

Restrict the size and concentrated power of corporations without discouraging superior efficiency or technological innovation.

7. FEMINISM AND GENDER EQUITY

We have inherited a social system based on male domination of politics and economics. We call for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect differences of opinion and gender. Human values such as equity between the sexes, interpersonal responsibility, and honesty must be developed with moral conscience. We should remember that the process that determines our decisions and actions is just as important as achieving the outcome we want.

8. RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY

We believe it is important to value cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual diversity, and to promote the development of respectful relationships across these lines.

We believe that the many diverse elements of society should be reflected in our organizations and decision-making bodies, and we support the leadership of people who have been traditionally closed out of leadership roles. We acknowledge and encourage respect for other life forms than our own and the preservation of biodiversity.

9. PERSONAL AND GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

We encourage individuals to act to improve their personal well-being and, at the same time, to enhance ecological balance and social harmony. We seek to join with people and organizations around the world to foster peace, economic justice, and the health of the planet.

10. FUTURE FOCUS AND SUSTAINABILITY

Our actions and policies should be motivated by long-term goals. We seek to protect valuable natural resources, safely disposing of or "unmaking" all waste we create, while developing a sustainable economics that does not depend on continual expansion for survival. We must counterbalance the drive for short-term profits by assuring that economic development, new technologies, and fiscal policies are responsible to future generations who will inherit the results of our actions.

Make the quality of life, rather than open-ended economic growth, the focus of future thinking.

Our political system is so broken these days that one can make the argument that involvement in politics is close to useless now. We are effectively limited to holding our nose and giving our vote to the pro-corporate party merely to vote against the PRO-pro-corporate party - OR we can symbolically throw away our vote in various ways.

I'd lioke to think that americans were still capable of grand transformations and innovations, but the evidence for that is shallow and evaporating as we type.

However, spreading ideas for a transition to an "electricity economy" (my keyphrase for the desirable altenative to a "decline economy") sounds like a good plan to me - so, hey man, start a blog or something and write out your ideas, here or elsewhere, so they can become part of the conversation.

I figure a green party political effort is kind of a "get something ready to take action as the existing system crumbles under the perfect storm of climate change, resource depletion, and economic rot" hail mary play. It won't work yet, because we have not yet come to grips with what is happening to us. But, at some point in the next few decades pain and shock will (or at least might) flip the current system into a new state.

Because of Penn State, we all live here in a kind of artificial bubble, an economic terrarium - and I'm not sure if that will make it easier or harder to do political and economic experiments here.

Harder, I suspect, but I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised.

Anyways, model out your automation scheme - I think you'll find I'm fairly well informed about such things, and should have some intelligent things to say about it.

So, basically an enhanced smart road with a built in smart grid. Sounds cool, very science fictiony. I wish I could believe we were capable of such feats.

I've been saying for years (as have many) that if we took the trillions we spend on maintaining our military empire and spent it on infrastructure we would all be vastly richer and more secure right now.

One builds a new type of large road, and in it or under it or alongside it build data and electrical main lines, and multiply redundant computers to provide guidance presumably, given that you are emphasizing automated movement.

Lol, in my ideal version of such a thing, it would be built over a superconducting electrical trunk line, with something like compressed gas electrical power storage resovoirs every so often. A whole new generation of city to city infrastructure.

Since I do not believe we are politically or economically capable, in our current state of decline, of building such a thing the way it should be built, I tend to look at it and ask, "well, what smaller scale things can you do that work together to accomplish a similar goal?".

But assuming it could be done politically, I think the first few cities that band together and connect themselves with such smart roads would become economic powerhouses.

As content for a book it sounds quite good.

So, what goes on this super smart road? What types of vehicles, and how do they access the electric current?

Do you have any sense of precursors to a fully idealized version?

Because, like I said, we americans have lost the will to think big, and such a concept would have to go thru practical tests first, so what's the smaller politically possible version?

And where would it be built?

Thinking about it, I think we'd have much more success focusing on refurbishing the train infrastructure - altho even something as humble as that is beyond we americans now.

I personally tend to want to move to the direction of moving people less and moving things and information more. So, maybe fleets of computerized semi-automated buses and delivery trucks, fueled on natural gas or methane or butane, or electric if the battery problem can be solved?

So, what is it that makes trains so expensive to build? Can you put up a few links to information about this? Is that purely initial cost or lifetime use cost? What elements in the process are expensive?

Lets say it is expensive - tho, modeling it out in my head I'm not sure I see why it should be - but lets stipulate that it is. Do you happen to know any sources that discuss optimizing the train system we have already installed? I was reading something recently - darn wish I'd saved that link now - that said that trains use 1/20th of the energy of tricks to transport goods. 

Here's what the wiki says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_efficiency_in_transportation#Trains

You can put up links to your various writings, you know. This website accepts them, usually.

So, what do you figure would have to happen in the united states for a big revolutionary infrastructure project like you propose would be possible?

We are probably going to turn to the rightwing as a nation, they by definition will not be amenable to such projects, which would require considerable tax increases, or a ending of the military empire, which of course they won't do. So, lets say the next ten years are pretty much off the table.

I can barely model out in my imagination what would have to happen before we americans would be ready to build on such scales again. Please try to convince me it might happen!