report on book progress, etc…

2004-12-11

Richard Moore

Friends,

Good news and bad news. FIrst the bad news. Pluto's interest
in the book was very short-lived. The editor wanted all the
ideas to be placed in an academic context, citing all those
who had developed ideas along similar lines. For a book which
covers such a wide scope, that would mean making the material
at least twice as long, and would greatly dampen its
accessibility to the intended audience.

The good news is that there is a wide choice of on-demand
publishers, and they can get the book out in a fraction of the
time required by traditional publishers. Nonetheless, the logo
& support of a real publisher would have been helpful. Can't
have everything, sigh.

I know most of you don't have time to keep up with all the
material, but I've been very gratified and encouraged by the
many people who have jumped in and provided all sorts of help.
I've gotten invaluable feedback at many levels, from 'how an
ordinary reader would respond', to 'how professional
facilitators see these things', to detailed proofreading.
Catherine Breen, a university student in Cork, has been
particularly helpful, reviewing everything from the point of
view of a reader for whom most of the ideas are new and
strange.   As a consequence of all this help, I'm in the
process of making considerable revisions.

I'm going to put back in a Ch 1 which is along the lines of
"Brief History of Humanity"... introducing concepts of
cultural evolution, mythology, pre-civilized societies, etc.
-- what one might call the 'Daniel-Quinn / Riane Eisler
stuff'. It will include some of the material currently in my
final chapter, about "Life outside the matrix". The final
chapter can then be shorter and more focused. The matrix
material, as Ch 2,  would then tie in to the mythology thread
of the new Ch 1.

There will also be a new chapter that talks about the
'transition period' -- the practical problems involved in
converting our energy-intensive systems into sustainable ones,
while keeping the wheels of society turning during the
process.

In response to several people's suggestions, I want to make
the chapter on "Charter for a democratic world" less abstract.
Rosa Zubizarreta suggested it be more like a 'poetic journey'
than a 'systems analysis'. Jim McGregor pointed out that the
few scenarios I dealt with in some depth only raised more
questions than they answered... "Such as crime, police,
prisons, universities, hospitals etc etc".  What I want to do
is make the material more open and suggestive, hinting at the
kinds of solutions that are possible for different kinds of
situations. Also I want to refer to real examples of solutions
from around the world and from history, rather than making
them all up as abstract scenarios. For example, Tree Bressen
says that parliaments in Europe, up to about 1600, used
consensus. I'll need to research that one, and this
information could be very effective. I'll also need to say why
that practice stopped, and how that might be avoided.

The chapter on "Harmonization in the Microcosm" has gotten
LOTS of critique and suggestions from Rosa, Tree, and Jim
Rough, all professional facilitators who are supporters of the
concept of harmonization, and from whom I've learned what
little I know about the various processes. One of their
suggestions is that I need to acknowledge that there are
processes using the word "consensus" that try to manipulate
the participants toward particular outcomes. Harmonization
processes need to be placed in the context of group processes
in general. This chapter will change quite a bit, but the main
conclusions seem to have survived critique.

I'd like to include an appendix, a 'recipe book', that
describes some simple processes that people can 'try at home',
sot to speak. It could also be a kind of 'consumers guide' by
which people could evaluate processes that might be on offer
in their community. But I'd need a volunteer expert to write
such an appendix. There's a limit to how much detail I can get
into with something I don't have direct experience with.

I haven't mentioned everyone who's been helping, and I hope no
one is offended. I just wanted to share an overview of the
kinds of support people have been offering. If anyone else
wants to give any kind of detailed review, please ask me for
an MS Word version of the relevant material. The text versions
I post to the list are less useful for such purposes.

---

On another note, Chris Thorman (our noble server guru)
introduced me to a spam service, aliencamel.com. It costs
$15.99 per six months, and is very effective and easy-to-use.
If any of you are still bothered by spam, this seems to be the
way to go. It works best if you upload a 'white list' (known
correspondents) at the beginning, but you can also just
approve messages as they come in, and build up your white list
that way. One of the nice features is that you can handle your
email from their website while you're on the road - no need to
bring along your computer and hope you can find a service
provider to log into. All's you need is a friend's computer
with access to the web. When you get home, you can easily
download all the new mail (incoming and outgoing) onto your
computer. If you want to give them a try, more information is
available on their web site: http://aliencamel.com/receive/

Below is a very encouraging excerpt from a website, sent in by
Dion Giles. I'm amazed that "Electronz" would post such a
thing and not even let me know.

best regards,
rkm
http://cyberjournal.org

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Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2004 13:03:19 +0800
To: •••@••.•••
From: Dion Giles
Subject: Commentary on "Escaping the Matrix"

Dear Richard

If you haven't already read it, you may be interested in the
following comment that appeared in a New Zealand e-mail
magazine ("E-zine") called "Electronz". 
http://www.electronz.cjb.net/

Best wishes - Dion Giles

---<fwd>---

      [2 ] ESCAPING THE MATRIX
      
      Author Richard K. Moore could be termed an historical analyst,
      with X-ray vision. His book by this name zooms right through
      the perceived reality as conjured up by political and
      corporate spin-doctors. He shows it up as a fictional matrix
      or mirage created and sustained by, and in the interests of,
      Big Business, the privately owned international news media,
      and the major left and right political parties which are kept
      dominant by F.P.P. Elections, plus crumbs and free beer from
      the TNC (TransNational Corporations) banquet tables.
      
      Moore's journey through, from the matrix into a different
      world, is likened to accepting the "red pill" or Truth Drug,
      from Greek Mythology's Morpheus, after which the matrix of
      myths woven by vested interests to tranquilize an unsuspecting
      public and protect themselves suddenly becomes transparent.
      
      The so-called ignorant protesters at Seattle, become a highly
      literate tip of an iceberg; a mass movement starting to revolt
      against globalization and international rule by a supreme and
      unelected "elite".
      
      The matrix equates capitalism with freedom and free
      enterprise, but instead it is an environment where governments
      provide conditions for corporates to feed their hunger for
      unlimited profits at the expense of the rest of the community.
      
      Matrix builders, even including significant parts of academia,
      portray democracy as being competitive party politics, but
      after the "red pill" it is seen as a game that the wealthy,
      ruling elite have long since learned to corrupt and manipulate
      to maintain their control, and achieve their ongoing
      objectives.
      
      After Moore's ESCAPING THE MATRIX, the world will never look
      the same again.
      
      For more info, go to http://cyberjournal.org
      
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