Social media and “The Great Turning” Part VIII: no more middle man on a level playing field

Photo of Circle Dance Waterloo, Ontario

by Kathie Wallace

No More Middle Man

With social media tools, there is an opportunity for every (extra)ordinary person to come to the forefront of our human story-telling and world-creating. The middle man is cut out; no Daddy figures, hierarchical external authority
figures, gurus, preachers or teachers can run the show, from the top down, in a
true social media experience. Social media is
people engaging together with other people. It is empowering people to tell
the necessary stories that can create the new world which is so urgently needed
now.

From the Wikipedia, which is itself a very successful example of social journalism, “With today’s technology the citizen journalist movement has found new life as the average
person can capture news and distribute it globally…. As Yochai
Benkler has noted, ‘the capacity to make meaning – to encode and decode
humanly meaningful statements – and the capacity to communicate one’s meaning
around the world, are held by, or readily available to, at least many hundreds
of millions of users around the globe.’”

The locus of control is now back in the hands of all the (extra)ordinary people if we choose to awaken to this truth and act on it.

The Level Playing Field

If we are co-creating and collaborating as true equals in an experience of reciprocal “give and take”, with no one pulling the group energy to her/himself, then it can be said that we are existing on a level playing field.
There can be no dominating, hierarchical energy if it is a true level playing
field.

Right now in Vancouver there is a new and burning social issue that could be consciously used as an experiment to prove the power of social media. The Campbell
government has steadfastly refused to respond to the critical need to build
more social housing in Vancouver.
As the same time, it has earmarked $450 million
dollars to build a casino in downtown Vancouver.
It is common knowledge that casinos promote social ills like addiction, poverty
and illness which add to the already groaning burden of anguish and despair
that is carried by the collective populace in today’s world.

(The reason why any government would choose to build a casino, which keeps people sick and addicted is certainly worth writing about.)

If some one is inspired to take up this challenge, we, the people, could stop this government plan in its tracks as we tell the government to re-allocate the $450 million to social housing. If people choose to aggregate
together and spread the word with social media tools by creating a Facebook
page, Twittering, videoing, blogging, and forming meetup groups on this issue,
we, the people, can stop this horror…if we choose. The playing field has been
levelled. We have the power now to do this kind of action…if we choose.

"We are the traditional journalism model turned upside down," explains Mary Lou Fulton, the publisher of the Northwest Voice in Bakersfield, California.
"Instead of being the gatekeeper, telling people that what's important to
them 'isn't news,' we're just opening up the gates and letting people come on
in. We are a better community newspaper for having thousands of readers who
serve as the eyes and ears for the Voice, rather than having everything
filtered through the views of a small group of reporters and editors.

There are some who would be the gatekeepers, trying to block this revolution that is called “social media”, perhaps because of ego and a desire for fame and attention. Part of the confusion about social media right now is because we are
living in two worlds simultaneously: the old paradigm hierarchical world of dominator
and control energy and the new world where the locus of control is held deep
inside everyone on a level playing field of equals. If the locus of control is
held by people engaging as equals with all other people, it can no longer
reside in hierarchical systems or organizations nor can middle men any longer
mediate between ordinary people communicating with ordinary people. The current
global dialogues that are unfolding everywhere through social media, across the
whole diverse spectrum of humanity, are weaving together the collective shared
wisdom of the “(extra)ordinary all of us”. This is how we are creating the new
stories that we need to manifest the new world being birthed right here, right
now on Mother Earth. This critical story-telling activity by the collective of
humanity trumps “going green” as the way to create our new world.

In this YouTube video, Zennie Abraham speaks to the need for a level playing field whenever people come together in community. He says, “I’m tired of going to… conferences… listening to someone
else talk…I want to go to a conference where people are interacting with each
other….not one supposed icon up there talking….no one has the right answer for
anything….[so] share….and… out of that, new things come”

Social media is a tool empowering ordinary people as equals on a level playing field where hierarchies cannot exist. This will become clearer as the gatekeepers wake up and graciously assume the role of background, “invisible” facilitators,
allowing ordinary people to come to the forefront. The systems will have to
become the “empty structures” that facilitate people
holding the power.

Social media has problems and a negative side as does everything and it is going through a learning curve. But the arrogant insistence on “my way or the highway” of traditional media is not present. Using the tools of the
social media world, we are all equal
storytellers, gathering, exchanging, and
sharing information collaboratively in this new world paradigm. The
revolution has already happened. There is no going back thanks to social media.
We ARE the new world now. WE humans, in awakening to our interconnection
through social media interactions, ARE the system. People now hold the power on
the planet. This is the next step in our human evolution.

Columnist Ron Shewchuk stated recently, “This broad adoption of social networks is profoundly changing the way people find and share information. It's also
creating powerful online communities that can stage activist campaigns, lead
consumer revolts and even influence the outcome of elections.”

One example of the interactive and world-transforming work of social media is the “Ringing Cedars Revolution” Ning website that shares the story of Anastasia, one Russian woman who is
changing the world. It is one iterative
example of a global movement of people quitting their “surface reality”
jobs and aggregating together to move back to the land. They are growing
their own food and living freely in self-sufficiency as equals within a self-organizing
community.

These self-emerging, self-organizing new world communities are inspired and made possible through the connecting, collaboration and co-creation that goes on with the tools of social media. These tools are leveling the playing field
all over the planet. People are coming together and forming new patterns of connections
and communities. They are inspired by, and acting on, their own inner urgings
and desires as they share information freely
with each other. The momentum of these steadily-growing aggregations of human
energy will determine now what happens on the planet as we transform into a new
world that affirms full-potential life for
everyone. National boundaries are becoming irrelevant.

One of the most advanced examples of social media, which I currently know of, has just self-emerged. It is called “The Great Kitchen Table Debate” due to be activated Sunday, April 4, 2010 1-8 PM
GMT LIVE from Glastonbury UK.

The invitation is: “Come and join us at "The Kitchen Table" for an experimental discussion forum…. This will be a fully interactive participatory event, in a blending of theatre and discussion, where there is no audience as
such as everyone is welcome to be involved.”

It seems to be a level playing field where “ordinary people” participants run the event and determine what unfolds rather than a few “talking heads”
controlling the experience. For those unable to attend the event in Glastonbury in person,
the discussions will be webcast through the website. It is already being
Twittered, emailed, texted, Facebooked,
and YouTubed.

”Those who are watching on the web will be able to interact with the
discussions through Twitter which will be projected on a large screen in the
venue. These contributions will be fed into the ongoing discussions and back
out through the webcast maximizing the potential synergy of the event …because
the only way we can change the world is co-creation and co-collaboration”.

On a level playing field, where the locus of control is held deeply within the core of every person, ordinary people aggregating around issues of concern can change our world instantly…if we wake up, if we claim our power, if we
choose, if we act.

.

Previous blogs on this topic: Dimensions

Concluding blog for Social Media and “The Great Turning” coming next....

This article first appeared in the on-line Vancouver Observer http://ow.ly/1u4GS