Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us

Interdependence is the acknowledgement that we are all connected. This is a basic assumption of many indigenous peoples. No one is truly safe until we are all safe; no one truly thrives until we all thrive. In this view, giving is not regarded as ‘charity,’ but as ‘reciprocity.’

For each of us to contribute to the pool of collective wisdom, it is critical that the question we instead answer is: ‘What is in our collective interest? What is best for the nation as a whole?’ When we aggregate our multiple perspectives in answer to this question, we stand a good chance of getting to a better answer than any of us would alone. W

Experiments began to explore how readers might be involved as participants in the processes of journalism, not just in the form of comments or ‘user-generated content,’ but in crowd-sourced editorial panels supporting and challenging journalists to get under the skin of particular places or subjects, crowdfunding experiments to support particular i

More and more organisations and institutions, across the world and in every sector, are being transformed or replaced as the Citizen Story emerges and spreads. These organisations can be recognised by the presence of two key characteristics. The first is philosophical. Citizen organisations are rooted in a deep and resilient belief in humanity: a b

we can accept and embrace our individual freedom only with the freedom of others, even when they consider themselves our enemies.

Kennedy was determined to alleviate the suffering in his community without turning to foreign organisations for help. ‘Since we were the ones who understood all the challenges we faced, we also had the best shot at finding the solutions. As my mother always said: only he who wears the shoe knows how it pinches.’

SUBJECT CONSUMER CITIZEN DEPENDENT TO RELIGIOUS DUTY OBEY RECEIVE COMMAND PRINT HIERARCHY SUBJECTIVE INDEPENDENT FOR MATERIAL RIGHTS DEMAND CHOOSE SERVE ANALOGUE BUREAUCRACY OBJECTIVE INTERDEPENDENT WITH SPIRITUAL PURPOSE PARTICIPATE CREATE FACILITATE DIGITAL NETWORK DELIBERATIVE

The spread of Christianity echoed the principles of the Subject, putting forth the ultimate Father, the almighty God in whose great hands lay the fate of all His people, the shepherd to us as flock. Under Him came another father-figure in the form of the Pope, under whom came widely distributed Fathers of local churches. A veritable Russian doll of

Citizenship-as-status is a possession some have, but many lack; Citizenship-as-practice is something we can all do. Just as official citizens have only their votes to contribute, they have only their nationality with which to identify and to defend. By contrast, true Citizens have homes: communities of place and interest, often overlapping, in whic