The Power of Ideas - The Trailer

We are all acutely aware of the stark polarization in our world; We have begun to lose faith In our political, social and economic systems. Our belief that our democracy can provide adequately for our citizens, is fraying at the edges.

We have lost the art of open minded discourse and it would seem that we no longer value perspectives different from our own - Cancel culture, negative labelling; distortion of the truth has prevented all voices from being heard and has splintered our citizenry around political lines

What if, instead of fighting and trying to prove the illegitimacy of each other’s political opinions, diverse groups of citizens came together to envision and then create the kind of democratic system we all  want? is that even possible?

My guest for the next episode of #ForWhatitsWorthwithBlakeMelnick and our series, #TheManyFacesofInnovation  week is Dr. Ruth Backstrom, author, speaker, and acclaimed educator who is an expert in facilitation methods that foster deeper conversations.

Dr. Backstrom's new book, IGNITING A BOLD NEW DEMOCRACY: Empowering Citizens Through Game-Changing Reforms, seeks to address this question,using historical events, policy and specific legislation to trace how we arrived at our current state and then provides us with a way forward …For What it’s Worth

The music for this episode, "How Come I Gotta" is written and performed by our current artist in residence, #DouglasCameron

Knowledge Management Institute of Canada
From those who know to those who need to know

Workplace Innovation Network for Canada
Every Graduate is Innovation-Enabled; Every Employee can Contribute to Innovation

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Transcript

Episode Trailer

[00:00:00] Blake Melnick: Well, welcome to this week's episode of For What It's Worth, I'm your host, Blake Melnick, and this is the trailer for our up and coming episode, the next segment in our "Many Faces of innovation" series called "The Power of Ideas" 

When I was a boy, my family's dinner table was a place for conversation. The sharing of ideas and my family was very open-minded.

[00:00:54] We talked about everything around the dinner table. Our conversations ranged from politics to [00:01:00] religion. We discussed philosophy and literature. We shared ideas, both ours as well as the prevailing ones of the day. My family was of the mind that you had to be able to share your ideas openly, to engage in deep conversations and to find room for the views and opinions of others in order to learn and advance one's own understanding.

[00:01:23] And as a boy, I got a chance to try out some really hair-brained ideas around the dinner table with my family to see how they responded. And we engaged in heated debate and I listened to their viewpoints and their arguments, and I would walk away from those conversations at the dinner table with an altered perspective and a different mindset than the one I came in with.

[00:01:45] And I would take what I learned through these discussions back out into the world. My grandfather served in both World Wars. At the end of the Second World War, there was a feeling of optimism in the world, and when [00:02:00] I was a boy growing up in the sixties and seventies, the world seemed full of possibilities.

[00:02:06] I witnessed the first Apollo mission, the landing on the moon. I dreamt of flying cars and spaceships and exploration. To me, everything seemed right in the world. First world democratic nations had a united sense of purpose. We had faith in our leaders and the political and economic systems that made it possible for all citizens to participate in the American dream.

[00:02:33] Through education, hard work, and determination, people could lead a good life and share in the wealth and prosperity of the nation. Furthermore, we could extend this prosperity to other less fortunate nations around the world. My grandfather would say to me, Blake, you've been born to a life of privilege.

[00:02:54] You don't want for anything and you're lucky. But with that privilege is a responsibility to [00:03:00] help improve the lot of life of people who are less fortunate than you. I had great faith in liberal democracies and the right of individuals to pursue their own dreams and ambitions while also advancing the prosperity and wellbeing of our collective society, and ultimately sharing the prosperity of our democratic system with peoples from other nations.

[00:03:24] And then something changed. In the 1980s, I began to notice a shift away from the goal of creating a better world for all, to creating a better world for oneself, where the pursuit of personal wealth and power began to overshadow the collective responsibility towards our fellow citizens and towards other nations.

[00:03:47] We saw the rise of entrepreneurialism and a widening of the income gap as we embraced neoliberal economic policies. The supply side and trickle down economics of Ronald Reagan and Margaret [00:04:00] Thatcher often referred to as free market economies.

[00:04:04] In conjunction with this, we saw significant reduction in government spending and in social programs geared towards helping the most vulnerable members of our society. We also saw a decline in the influence of trade unions to counterbalance the influence of corporations in the political arena, resulting in the rise in influence of political lobby groups representing the interests of business and the pursuit of capital.

[00:04:31] Over the well-being of our collective society and the influence of the cultural elites was reduced in favor of the money to elites. This period marked the beginning of the erosion of the American dream, ultimately leading us to our current state. We are all acutely aware of the stark polarization in our world right now.

[00:04:55] We have begun to lose faith in our political, social, and economic systems. [00:05:00] Our belief that our democracy could provide adequately for all our citizens is fraying at the edges. We've lost the art of open-minded discourse, and it would seem that we no longer value perspectives different from our own. Cancel culture, negative labeling, distortion of the truth has prevented all voices from being heard and has splintered our citizenry around political lines.

[00:05:28] What if instead of fighting and trying to prove the illegitimacy of each other's political opinions, diverse groups of citizens came together to envision and then create the kind of democratic system we all want?

[00:05:43] Is that even possible? My guest on the next episode of For What It's Worth is Dr. Ruth Backstrom, author, speaker, and acclaimed educator who is an expert in facilitation methods that fostered deeper conversations. [00:06:00] Dr. Backstrom's new book, Igniting a Bold New Democracy -  Empowering Citizens through Game-Changing Reforms, seeks to address this question using historical events, policy, and specific legislation to trace how we arrived at our current state, and then provide us with a way forward ....for what it's worth.

[00:06:24]