Announcing the
TERRITORIAL CIVICS KNOWLEDGE BASE (Preliminary) for the
SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA
1. SO WE'RE ALL ON THE "SAME PAGE"
Yesterday, I announced the establishment of a preliminary corporate sub-website, called the "The Mentor Enterprises / ELMS Reference Center."
I also introduced two preliminary "Territorial Civics Knowledge Bases (TCKB)" for (a) Pittsburg, CA and (b) Contra Costa County.
All TCKB's are meant to be accumulators of websites, links, and other relevant, invaluable information -- WITHOUT PRACTICAL LIMIT. Eventually, everything in webspace will be somehow all gathered in one convenient place -- to help simplify and untangle the complexities of modern living -- ALL WITHIN the SINGLE Mentor/ELMS (where ELMS means "Entire Life-time Management Systems")
2. PURPOSE
Today, I am pleased to announce that one more TCKB in the line is ready. The next concentric territorial ring surrounding and containing my home-base, at Pittsburg, CA. Yesterday, we did city-level and county-level. Now, area-level is placed in operation.
Accordingly, here it is -- and I hope it meets with your approval:
That announcement started out to be the only purpose of this bulletin until I realized this was a perfect chance to verbalize what I propose to do to with the entire year of 2015.
3. REALITY CHECK
As in every case, throughout this project, everything is a work in progress.
I bring these things into existence -- crude as they are -- as rapidly as possible -- rather than risk not getting them to you at all. At this stage of the project, the rule must be SUBSTANCE OVER STYLE. I'll worry about the niceties, all in good time -- as fate permits.
Everything will get better and better over time. After all, these are my "babies," and I take great pride in the fact that -- at long last -- they are now coming into the real world -- so I can see them, share them, ponder them, refine them, learn from others, and do all else to make them worthy of existence -- AND OF OPTIMAL BENEFIT TO OUR REMARKABLE SPECIES OF LIFE -- if not at once, then eventually.
4. MY NEXT STEPS -- Another Peek Under the Tent
4.1 More TCKB's -- Naturally, this stage has to spiral outward from the place with which I am most familiar and deeply involved -- my home-base at Pittsburg.
Here, I can see and feel and examine the impacts of system developments and make refinements and extract practical general system-models which can be adapted to suit other territorial situations. Here is the first, logical place to look for partners, employees, and volunteers to help this undertaking. Yet, there ought to be something in this for everyone, even at this early stage.
4.2 THE NEAR-TERM AGENDA
OBJECTIVE: Establish all preliminary Territorial KB's before New Year's Day.
- State-Level -- California (by week's end)
- National-Level -- (by week's end)
- Global-Level -- (next week)
- Specific TCKB's for each and all Cities, Counties, States, and Nations outside my home territory -- on a "catch, as catch-can" basis (I'll be working on this, all along, but will not be able to intensify until a later stage of this Mentor / ELMS project development cycle).
4.3 THE LONG-TERM VIEW -- 2015 -- as it looks from here.
I will explain all of this later but, in a nutshell, here are the broad contours of the Project Development Plan for 2015
4.3.1 Continue to flesh-out the TCKB's (in perpetuity)
4.3.2 Begin the second Mentor Knowledge Base series -- the FUNCTIONAL Civics Knowledge Bases (FCKB) -- (starting next week -- continuing, in perpetuity).
- There MUST and WILL be literally thousands of these. These are the pieces that will provide power, focus, and direction to the designs of the various subsystems comprising the PRIVATE and CIVIC MENTOR ELMS's.
- Looking at life from every conceivable angle -- the sum-total of existence.
- Probably organized under the Library of Congress Classification System to assure thoroughness and compatibility with the entire Human Knowledge and Experiential Base (HKEB) -- (major patterns and KB's will be established during 2015 -- ongoing development, perpetual).
4.3.3 Begin the third Mentor Knowledge Base series -- the PRIVATE Knowledge Bases (PKB) -- (Also, starting next week -- again, refining and evolving forever)
4.3.4 All of the KB's will be developed, simultaneously, with the establishment of the specific PRIVATE and CIVIC MENTOR ELMS's -- THE END-GAME FOR THE WHOLE THING.
- Together, these will place all of human knowledge, experience, and wisdom into the easy reach of every rational fellow human -- which we can use as a logical pattern for efficiently and effectively managing the TOTALITY (Public and Private) of our existences -- to optimize our well-being, betterment, and fulfillment in this life.
5. TOP 2015 PRIORITY
A HUGE PROBLEM HAS TO BE SOLVED
but it is one which WILL be solved because
THE INTERNET REVOLUTION
has changed the whole, entire ball-game
Unavoidable Limiting Factor: However, I MUST have these emerging KB's and their evolving organizing framework -- firmly in place -- to accomplish this.
If I do nothing else important in this life -- I MUST get this done. Many lives and much property are at stake.
5.2 BEEN DOING MY HOMEWORK
I have spent nearly six decades DELIBERATELY examining human existence -- inside-out, top-to-bottom, backwards and forwards, under the microscope, through the telescope, ears to the ground, probing, testing, inquiring, contemplating, writing, experimenting -- in other words, as thoroughly as possible.
I have come to understand and marvel at the vast store of human achievements and experiences and understandings and methods and so on -- which we have inherited and which we are continuing to develop. (In short, everything I could reach that makes us an "us.")
I am completely convinced that the United States is an incredible, highly successful human achievement. Its systems, while still humanly imperfect, are relentlessly self-perfecting in their nature and behavior -- at all times.
But, I have detected a serious omission. One which I think I can help fix -- and, therefore, MUST attempt. With the advent of The Internet blessing, the time has never been better for discerning this problem and dealing with it.
5.3 A MAJOR SOCIAL PROBLEM -- SOLVABLE
IN A NUT-SHELL: I have come to detect a "STRUCTURAL GAP" in our orderly systems of self-government.
A QUICK REVIEW: so we're on the "same page" -- From top to bottom, we have the Federal level, the State level, the Regional (or Areal) level, the County (or equivalent) level, and the City (or equivalent) level of government. (FIVE and I think there should be SIX, because...)
5.4 THE CRITICAL OMISSION: Then next, finally, there's just us -- down in the "grass roots" of society -- where we ALL reside -- providing, as "ordinary citizens" -- for the common good -- with our private resources (taxes, energy, time, etc.) -- and making our demands -- for some of the blessings of the common good -- manifested and tended to by government and by the economy (goods and services we require).
5.5 THE BASIC SCENARIO: Picture this. One of our private hands reaching up toward our government-levels and toward our other inherent systems for the things we require -- and they, reaching down toward us, trying mightily, to deliver them -- often in exchange for something -- sometimes not, directly. Our other "hand" offering up from our ranks -- the money, people (as employees, volunteers, officials, etc), and so forth that those systems require to function.
5.6 BUT DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM? Right there -- where those hands are supposed to meet -- right where the people, collectively, are supposed to FIRMLY interconnect with each other and their social systems -- is often a big, yawning gap.
5.6 BUT DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM? Right there -- where those hands are supposed to meet -- right where the people, collectively, are supposed to FIRMLY interconnect with each other and their social systems -- is often a big, yawning gap.
- For example, take my home-town of Pittsburg, CA. It has a population of about 60,000 and a City government of about 240 employees. As marvelous as our government is, it cannot do everything for us. Our American system is supposed to be a social partnership. We are the government and the government is US.
- Of course, there are many advanced neighborhoods around this rational nation -- tending to all of this, in their stride. But I contend that this is the exception more than the rule. And, all can benefit if everyone is behaving systematically -- whether they are advanced management systems or random fragments of potential neighborhoods.
- We, in the grass roots have to take charge. It is our duty -- for "we the people" are what the nation is all about -- when you get right down to it.
- We are the ultimate source of all authority, responsibility, and resources. We cannot avoid answering, personally -- because whatever we cause or permit to happen, we (or others we care about) are most likely to be affected in our persons by it.
- If we don't wish to feel bad -- then, don't let bad things happen. Make good things happen, instead.
- And, the better we cooperate in the good-doing, the more there will be of it.
- And the more people who are involved, the more systematic their cooperation needs to be -- in order to minimize wasting of it.
5.7 A PROBLEM BECOMES AN OPPORTUNITY: This gap is a perfect opportunity to bring the blessings of self-government even closer to home. Sensibly organize every single neighborhood and link them together as another functioning, institutionalized level of government -- and we will lay good hands on the levers of power as never before.
I mean to suggest ways to do this. But not just to suggest -- but to demonstrate and persuade with compelling examples and easy-to-use best practices -- arranged for optimal action. THIS IS MY MOST URGENT PRIORITY.
- And, as the Model NMS evolves -- neighborhoods who pattern themselves after it will become better engines for their own well-being
- Each and all of them doing all that is necessary to provide safe, secure and wholesome existences for their fellow residents -- for each other.
- Each and all of them doing things that are difficult, impossible, or even unthinkable for them to try to do -- in disunity and chaos
- Each and all of them amplifying the power and efficiency and responsiveness of the "other" government levels.
- Each and all of them forming themselves into virtual "fortresses" and "islands of well-being, betterment, productivity, and great joy" that bounce crime and other evils out of their midst -- yet joined, allied, so as to not bounce evil onto each other -- but rather right out of their common territories. Joined so that their power of their individual resources become amplified in the common recognition and sharing
- Each and all of them better discharging their inescapable civic and private duties -- and maximizing the inevitable civic and private blessings of their liberties -- down through the latest generations.
5.8 A MISSION-PHASE ACCOMPLISHED: At that point, we will have addressed a major portion of the totality of our PUBLIC existence. The NMS Model must be instituted in order for the entire Mentor/ELMS concept to make sense.
THE ULTERIOR FLOW AND TRAIN OF LOGIC: Once all or most of the nation's neighborhoods become self-mentoring NMS's -- we will have a powerful, practical common anchor point -- by which to stabilize our social lives -- at this, the most "natural" level of human commonality -- where we live and all must eventually return, repeatedly - making us reachable among ourselves -- with greater ease -- an anchor needed in order to "plug-into our lives" the remaining Civic and Public Mentors under construction -- and have the whole thing work to best effect.
Our Neighborhood Management Systems (the NMS's) and our Families are, or CAN BE, the most BASIC linch-pins of our human interconnectedness (or should be) -- for we share a common territory and, hence, a common destiny -- which we are going to want to influence in our favor -- and have to cooperate to do this -- and these secure connections -- enable us to act as one -- when the situation calls for such ready strength -- ready without us having to go emergency measures -- just to anticipate, respond, or react, sensibly -- assuring, instead, that we hum right along, giving ourselves peace of mind and body -- so we can carry out our private and public business -- productively -- for the greatest fulfillment -- of the best possible futures -- for ourselves, our world, and our descendants.
What better, more moral, more sensible, more rewarding thing in this life could we possibly do -- than live with high purpose?
THE ULTERIOR FLOW AND TRAIN OF LOGIC: Once all or most of the nation's neighborhoods become self-mentoring NMS's -- we will have a powerful, practical common anchor point -- by which to stabilize our social lives -- at this, the most "natural" level of human commonality -- where we live and all must eventually return, repeatedly - making us reachable among ourselves -- with greater ease -- an anchor needed in order to "plug-into our lives" the remaining Civic and Public Mentors under construction -- and have the whole thing work to best effect.
Our Neighborhood Management Systems (the NMS's) and our Families are, or CAN BE, the most BASIC linch-pins of our human interconnectedness (or should be) -- for we share a common territory and, hence, a common destiny -- which we are going to want to influence in our favor -- and have to cooperate to do this -- and these secure connections -- enable us to act as one -- when the situation calls for such ready strength -- ready without us having to go emergency measures -- just to anticipate, respond, or react, sensibly -- assuring, instead, that we hum right along, giving ourselves peace of mind and body -- so we can carry out our private and public business -- productively -- for the greatest fulfillment -- of the best possible futures -- for ourselves, our world, and our descendants.
What better, more moral, more sensible, more rewarding thing in this life could we possibly do -- than live with high purpose?
5.9 READINESS FOR THE NEXT PHASE: Then, with the NMS-model in place, down in the foundation of things -- the next project phase can accelerate -- the other part of the human equation -- our private existences and ways to mentor them, systematically.
6. THE END-GAME IN SIGHT
- that people will want to use, for they will find none better -- for only the best available ingredients will be incorporated -- and we will be able to judge which fits each case;
- that are thorough -- leaving out nothing -- for the things that we don't notice or understand -- are often the things that do the most avoidable harm to us. No one can possibly know all there is to know -- but if all that is known is made increasingly easy to find out -- including things we didn't know we needed to know -- exactly when (or before) circumstances call for them -- then we can dramatically increase our chances of managing our existences favorably, rather than not.
- fun to use -- because systems are more useful when people enjoy them;
- easy to use -- because people are extremely busy creatures -- and the whole Mentor / ELMS mission has to do with simplifying life, so more good can be done -- more favorable change accomplished;
- immensely practical -- because time and other resources tend to be scarce, precious, and should not be wasted;
- comprehensive (in other words, thorough, again) -- because to manage the TOTALITY of existence means to overlook nothing; Ready, reliable access to orderly KB's guarantees that that which is practical will not likely be missed too often.
- self-explanatory -- since a system which naturally models real life is easier to adapt to suit our own unique circumstances and understandings
- accommodating -- easy for us to believe in and adopt for all the intended purposes -- oh, the advantages are endless -- but I will accumulate a list of them in the corporate strategic statement, later.
- free of charge -- the whole aim is to lift-up the species -- excluding no one -- and money is an obstacle for many. The only return on investment I truly seek -- is that we humans all engage in a perpetual, orderly conversation about all the things that matter to us. Help me perfect the Mentor / ELMS. I am counting on the common wisdom to offset the many weaknesses in my own.
5. CONFIDENCE CHECK
NOW THAT I HAVE FINALLY FOUND SO MANY OF THE "RIGHT TOOLS" -- after much trial-and-error, the flood-gates seem to be opening, at long last. The above plan may appear formidable (and, I guess it is), but I have been giving this a lot of thought -- and I feel confident that I can juggle all the balls -- until I institute the Corporation (c. 2016) which will share some of the load.
"The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing"
Stephen R. Covey
David Nelson
All Original Content © 2014, The MENTOR Enterprises / ELMS, All Rights Reserved. BUT, I hereby waive those rights, to this extent: You may freely copy and pass this along -- and are urged to do so -- as long as it's all done free of charge, unchanged, you include this statement, AND you inform me as to how it is being used -- at YOUR convenience but, hopefully soonest.
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