… of the people, by the people, for the people!
At last year’s TED, I was selected to pose a challenge to the TED community. I thought to myself, wow, this is a big opportunity.
The biggest challenge I saw facing us and the challenge that is interfering with all honest attempts at solving our other challenges is that we have a totally corrupt political system which is no longer even trying to serve the people or society as a whole.
My simple challenge then, was that we grasp the new tools of democracy before us (twitter, blogging, mobile apps, etc.), align some rich good-hearted technocratic influencers on board for resources, and to start a totally new political party — The Good Party — that would rid us of our dependence on these corrupt politicians beholden to the revolting revolving door financial corruption that is so disgraceful to witness.
The Good Party would be unlike any political party we have seen, as it would not advertise, nor campaign, rather it would spread by word-of-mouth, mobilizing the youth and disenfranchised middle only through its app and its website. Further, it would not put candidates on ballots unless it was assured that it had enough “votes” to win, whence it would appear out of nowhere for a district and win the election via a massive write-in vote using the “other” slot. In this way it would truly be the “other party” in both style and substance!
And to further assure everyone that it’s not politics as usual, the Good Party would also be totally comprised of citizen candidates (non-politicians) serving their fellow citizens on single terms, thus avoiding the financial conflicts of interest that revolving door career politcians plague US politics with today.
Unfortunately, at TED 2013, this challenge went largely unanswered.
However, recently with Russell Brand’s tirade going viral, I’ve been asked by several people whether the timing is right to re-release the Good Party idea / plan, but this time to the public.
I’m more than happy to oblige and if anyone knows Russell, please send him this post… 🙂
So, here, my friends, is a simple (very rough) outline for starting a Good Party to save us from the terribly conflicted corrupt political choices we face today. If implemented properly, this might actually get me out there to vote for the first time too!
Please let me know your thoughts… And, if after reading the above, Russell Brand or any one of you is interested in working further on this idea with me, they should sign up here or reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter.
Cheers! 🙂
Farhad.
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BTW: If you’re interested in the original TED 2013 challenge, you can view the original docs below. Note that at the time I was hoping that one or more “white knight” billionaire TEDsters would jump at the chance of saving the world from political corruption by agreeing to provide good-sized endowment to help jumpstart the Good Party from the top down. Unfortunately, no card-holding member of the rich and shameless billionaires’ club jumped at the chance… but, of course it only takes one. So I still hold out hope, because fixing our corrupt political system and saving the world from these yucky politicians is so much more gratifying than having another billion in the bank… 😉
Here, Now, Wow! 
Agreed! It’s about time we bring innovation to government. Our politicians are not in tune with this generation’s culture. The unwillingness to take risks and innovate, not to mention the corruption and self-serving interests of our politicians, has ultimately resulted in economic disparity and despair, environmental problems, social-economic issues, etc.
Technology + a desire for social-economic-environmental change should be the focus… to improve the quality of life.
Let’s get the ball rolling on this one!
About time some one does something positive . Thank u