Make no mistake about it – the world is currently facing a cascade of threats the likes of which humanity has never faced before.
Ecological disasters, pandemics, nuclear war, unregulated AI, economic inequality, misinformation, the war on science, discrimination and hatred, and the rise of populism, nationalism and fascism – all are clear and present dangers.
Any single one of these could cause catastrophic harm to the human race.
Together, their harm is much greater due to their interdependence and could spell the end of humanity and all life on Earth.
We now have a nationalist autocrat in the White House who has the unilateral support of Congress, the Senate and the Supreme Court. He wields power over the country with the largest economy, the most wealth, the biggest army, and the largest nuclear stockpile in the world. He has the backing of several of the world’s richest and most powerful men.
We need to understand that we are all living in a tinderbox and he has a giant arsenal of firestarters.
As we enter 2025, I cannot say this emphatically enough – the risk of catastrophic destruction is very real.
I know that many people are feeling anxious and helpless right now.
This decade represents an inflection point that will shape the future of humanity and the planet for the foreseeable future.
When it comes down to it, we have only two choices:
We can stand by and do nothing, like some did in Germany in the 1930s, and like some in the United States are doing right now. We do so with naive hope that this path will lead us to a positive outcome or we will at least be able to avert disaster. The likelihood of either is very low.
OR
We can choose to forge a new and better path forward for humanity. A path that leads to peace and prosperity for all and ecological balance.
If that second option sounds as naive as doing nothing and hoping for a positive outcome, I get where you’re coming from.
It probably feels like an impossible path to forge, but it is not.
We are eight billion strong – an interconnected and interdependent global village with the power to change the course of history.
We need only two things:
- the will to change course, and,
- a mechanism to guide us towards this brighter future
I believe that many people around the world are ready to change course and are, in fact, hungry for change. They have the will
That leaves only one thing standing between humanity and a beautiful future – the bridge to get from here to there.
I believe that bridge is built with better governance and, specifically, public policy.
Now, maybe the idea of better public policy as the ‘saviour’ of humanity seems a bit far-fetched.
Let’s face it, it’s not the sexy ‘Hail Mary’ solution that we see in the movies. It’s no Bruce Willis from Armageddon willing to sacrifice his life to save the planet from a giant asteroid
But if we cast our gaze back to the origins of democracy, we can get a peek at the ‘sexy’ side of governance.
You see, back then every citizen had a say and a vote. They all showed up at the Agora, had a community dialogue, and made a community decision.
This is the purest and most effective form of democracy.
Unfortunately, between then and now it has been impossible to practice this form of democracy at scale. Cities and nations became too populated and geographically distant for citizens to gather in one place and decide on the best way forward for their community. That’s why the representative democracy was born – where citizens would vote for a representative to be their voice in the ‘Agora’. Unfortunately, the representative form of democracy concentrates power in a handful of leaders who are fallible, and we have seen where that can lead to.
For centuries representative democracy was the only feasible way to practice democracy at scale….until now!
Thanks to today’s technology, distance and space are no longer barriers to gathering and having a community dialogue. People can once again represent themselves in the democratic process.
That’s where Civonus comes in.
As the world’s first digital policy-making platform it solves the problem of how we come together to have a community dialogue.
Carefully designed to harness the wisdom of the crowd – citizens, leaders, subject experts, government officials, and other stakeholders – Civonus is the 21st-century equivalent of the Agora…and then some.
It provides a digital space for everyone to gather and contribute to the policy-making process from start to finish. It does so while leveraging best practices to ensure the process is sustainable, equitable, inclusive, transparent, consensus-based, and evidence-informed. It enables governments to collaborate with one another on policy-making, which is critical in the 21st century interconnected global village that the world has become.
By giving citizens a way to share their insights and feedback on pressing issues from the comfort of their homes, Civonus empowers people everywhere to exercise their civic responsibility and contribute to the future of their communities and society as a whole.
So let us not stand by and watch the autocrats turn back the clock on human progress while ignoring and exacerbating existential threats. Instead, let us harness the power of public policy and civic engagement to create a new path to peace and prosperity for all people, and ecological balance. Join us!