We the People, are the System

My speech from TEDx Reykjavík

The speech has been translated to various languages, thank you! 
ΕΜΕΊΣ, ΟΙ ΆΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ, ΕΊΜΑΣΤΕ ΤΟ ΣΎΣΤΗΜΑ - Greek
NOUS, PEUPLE, SOMMES LE SYSTÈME - French
МЫ — НАРОД, МЫ — СИСТЕМА - Russian
Noi, il Popolo, siamo il sistema - Italian

‘Nós, as pessoas, somos o Sistema’ - Portuguese
Wir, das volk, das system - German

The 21^st century will be the century of the common people – the century of you, of US.

We live in remarkable, transformative times. We have the library of Alexandria at our fingertips; all the recorded knowledge of the world is being digitized and made available through the Internet.

Meanwhile, our democratic models are hollow and crumbling at an alarming rate as we move further into a new era of complexity, technology and interconnectivity.

The ideologies of the old school of politics, media, monetary systems, education, corporations, and all known structures are in a state of transformation. They are crumbling. Now is the time for fundamental change on all fronts, we have to seize this moment. Because this is THE moment.

Our states are built around systems that are outdated, created in simpler times and for smaller societies. Today, those systems no longer serve the people but are simply self-serving.

The welfare state has been hollowed and is on the verge of collapse, often as a way to privatize it.  We are running out of planet and our current systems are unable to do anything about it.

Most of our democracies have become like a dictatorship with 100 talking-heads on the neck of a corporate body.

Draconian ‘anti-terrorism’ laws and secrecy have somehow become the new norm. Modern democracies have become a freaky mix of Brave New World and: ... 1984.

So, do you know what our digital persona is? It is made from content and meta data. 

Do you know what meta data and data retention is? 

I mean do you understand it on a deep level. 

Like you understand that you have a constitutional right to vote without anyone knowing who or what you voted for?  Like you understand that lawyers and their clients have the right to have conversations in private? Like you understand that 

what happens between you and your doctor should remain private? Like the communication between a source and a journalist should remain private? 

Data retention of your meta data basically means that you are butt naked in the system, 

your digital persona is for everyone who has enough power or capital to see, 

mock, poke at, sell, touch, manipulate and consume. 

Your digital persona has a digital shadow. 

It follows you everywhere you go and unlike your normal 

offline shadow it can be captured, changed, shared or sold.

If your walls are windows, would you draw the curtains when you sleep, have sex or go to the bathroom? Yes? Maybe? 

In your digital house, you simply don't have that choice. Encryption and legislation are the key to pull the curtains when you choose. 

We have never been as connected as we are today, as enabled to share real-time stories of success and failure. Therefore, our learning curve is steeper than ever before.

We are sharing, downloading, remixing and co-creating every day. Our digital person is expanding and our digital shadow ever growing. 

We are being manipulated every day into believing we are powerless, that there is nothing that can change these systems; but I am telling you; this is a lie.

You have the power to be a catalyst for change in our world. It has always been individuals

who change our world, not some external power, but individual power for good or for evil. 

Do you want others to be the power in your life, or do you want to accept the responsibility 

of claiming your power and use it by being a part of co-creating your society? 

This sense of social responsibility has somehow always been a part of my person, maybe because I was an outcast when I was a kid, the strange ugly duckling in my village that didn't fit in anywhere.  I was lucky, I learned very early on to be my personal alchemist and transform difficulty into strength.  I have accepted that I am some sort of a human guinea pig when it comes to system failure. 

It was human error that led to for example suicides of my beloved father and my husband both of whom vanished into the abyss of the Icelandic landscape of water and ice. How the system dealt with it was system error.

I chose to use these crisis as a transformative tool and through the death of my father,  who vanished, never to be found, on christmas eve 1987,  just after I turned twenty, 

I learned to value life and not only that, I learned to love myself and get off the path of self-destruction but most importantly I learned the true meaning of compassion. 

When my late husband vanished a few years later, I learned the hard way how to cope in 

extreme crisis, uncertainty and the fear of not knowing what will happen next. 

This has served me well during crisis times, internally or externally. 

I later learned that our collective systems express human behavior during times

of crisis. It is a fact that our systems are made from human values. 

We made them, we can undo them. 

What might seem impossible now, might be quite possible tomorrow 

because we are experiencing very rapid changes on all fronts. 

So I encourage you to start to make the blueprint for the future you want to live in.

Find that spark that will start a revolution in your heart.

Have you ever thought where the word Revolution comes from? I really like this word, 

it means change, it means evolving with love. How awesome is that? 

So why do you fear change, why are we so afraid of it? Everything is changing 

all the time in nature, yet we do everything in our power to make time still. 

Why are you so afraid? Why are we so afraid?

Perhaps because we have made everything so complex and grand. Perhaps 

it's time to return to more simple ways, more self sustainable ways. 

We can do that by learning from each other, by helping each other 

locally and globally and by remembering that we as individuals 

can change the world. Now is the time to step forward,

take on that challenge and be the change maker. 

Don’t expect others to do it, your time has arrived, 

to make a difference!

I took this step a few years ago, when I was temporary unemployed, 

a single parent with the simple goal of figuring out how I as an 

individual could help create a sustainable future for the next generations,

in times of great uncertainty after the financial crisis.

I have admit that I have never dreamt of being a leader, a politician, a parliamentarian, a minister, let alone the role of a Prime minister. My little Pirate party is currently polling as by the far, the biggest party in Iceland. We are all very humbled and frankly quite surprised. And at times of these it is good to remind me about the circle of power, I am a big fan of the circle. I co-created  the Pirate party power structure as a circle. The circle of community. 

I made the following pledge to myself: while I am in service I have to remember to listen to my heart, to listen to my intuition and to be impeccable with my word. And finally I must not care at all if I loose that place of power because it was never mine in the first place.

During the Job interview with the entire nation, when running for office, 

I made a promise to be the annoying mosquito in the tent, and that my friends, 

is a promise I have kept. Just ask my fellow parliamentarians :)

My main political objectives and vision took shape in a grassroots think-tank I was 

part of just after the financial meltdown in 2008, and during the work of the creation 

of the IMMI resolution, these objectives are thankfully at the heart of the Pirate Party 

core policy. 

Firstly: To involve the public in reshaping Iceland’s legal framework, 

through direct democracy and through co-creation of a new constitution for and 

by the people of Iceland; I was aware that we needed a new foundation or like I call it, 

new hardware in order to be able to make a clean system install. 

Secondly: To transform Iceland into a safe haven for freedom of information, expression and transparency, with a strong focus on digital privacy as a cornerstone of direct democracy. To create cutting edge 21^st century legal framework. 

I guess one could say that I am some sort of a party startup person, because I have co-created two parties from nothing in the last six and a half years, with some really amazing diverse people. Both parties got voted into parliament. Once I was elected six years ago, I went inside the system, straight to the heart of it,  the legislative assembly, like a legal hacker, analyzing its strengths and 

weaknesses in order to find ways to improve the system.

I learned early on to follow my intuition as a poetician for it makes a lot more sense to me then the rivalry and manipulations of left or right ideology. The right and wrong ideology of the old world has simply outgrown itself. No longer do we have strong parliaments with a direct link between the general public and decision maker, perhaps we never did. We have so called professional politicians that are far removed from the reality most of us live in.

Most people have realized that left and right politics don't have any useful role anymore. The ideology of it is outdated. To create political movements based on common agenda of pressing issues of basic human rights and democratic reform is so important right now.

In order for the common people like us to co-create our society we have to have the democratic tools to do so. People need to get into parliaments to change the laws, so we all can have the power that is rightfully ours, to impact our society and apply real pressure on those in power to work for us, not the elite.

One of the aims of both the Civic Movement and the Pirate Party has been to inspire ordinary people to take on political responsibilities by stepping forward and take a leap into the unknown and of course be the mosquito in the tent and open the windows. 

Looking at different models for how to humanize and modernize how we run our societies, I have come to the conclusion that there is currently no one model that fits all and there never will be one size fits all. We need to experiment and study what works for each type of society, depending on the cultural backdrop.

There are some amazing direct democracy experiments being implemented with success all over the world. New types of citizen engagement platforms are being created and used to form policy and to facilitate direct democracy, such as the Pirate Party Liquid Feedback, D-Cent, Your Priorities, DemocracyOS and WeGov.

Technology enabling direct access to power is now become simple enough that citizens can start using it to form opinion and enforce political change in a genuine grassroots, bottom-up way. 

One of the most important task ahead is to help people become aware of that if they want to live in a real democracy they need to be part of it, to engage with it. That living in a democracy is work.

It is also vital that people start a discussion among their friends and families about what sort of future they want. If we, the citizens of Earth – do not have a clear vision of where we are heading, we will get nowhere. The 1% has a clear roadmap of where they are heading, which enables them to stay ahead of the rest of us. 

Some of the most amazing innovations and creativity in the history of humankind have emerged in conditions of extreme stress, such as the New Deal. As human beings we have now reached a stage where we have to evolve to the next level, or we will fail to deliver a sustainable world to the next generation. Please talk about how you would like the future to be, make a vision, share your vision with others, start with the person sitting next to you. 

If you need an inspiration then I find John Lennon's ‘Imagine’ to be a good roadmap.

The poetician in me will end this with a wake up call!

I have seen signs

the end of the world

as we know it

has begun

Don't panic

it might look terrifying

on the surface

Yet inside every

human being

a choice

to be a catalyst 

Earth is calling

Sky is calling

Science is calling

Creation is calling:

Wake up, wake up now

Transform your heart into 

a compassion machine

Now is the time

to yield to the call of growth

to the call of action

You are the change makers

Sleepers of all ages

WAKE UP

wake up: NOW

Democracy in the digital era

From my editorial at the New Internationalist Democracy in the digital era

Legal hacking

Prior to entering parliament, I had two main objectives. One: to involve the public in reshaping Iceland’s legal framework, through national referendums; through co-creation of a new constitution; and through making strong legal foundations for a new system.

Two: to transform Iceland into a safe haven for freedom of information, expression and transparency, with a strong focus on privacy as a cornerstone of democracy.

The information society has little to offer if the ways of communicating information relevant to the public are constantly under attack

Once elected, I went inside the system, to the heart of it, the legislative assembly, like a hacker, analysing its strengths and weaknesses.

My conclusion is that the rule of law is an illusion: the rules we vote on do not apply to all, and thus there is no rule of law. Laws should be considered universal and the same rule of law should apply to all, not only the 99%.

I now see most of our democracies as one dictatorship with 100 talking-heads on the neck of a corporate monster.

Looking at different models for how to humanize and modernize how we run our societies, I have come to the conclusion that there is currently no one model that fits all.

We need to experiment and study what works for each type of society, depending on the cultural backdrop of each.

Some amazing experiments are now being implemented with success little known to the world at large.

The first seeds of awareness were spread by Buckminster Fuller in his book No More Secondhand God, where he talked about direct democracy and telephonic voting as early as 1940. At last, we are at a stage where the technology for direct access to power is simple enough that citizens can start using it to form opinion and enforce political change in a genuine grassroots, bottom-up way.

New types of citizen engagement platforms are being created and used to form policy and participate in direct democracy, such as the Pirate Party Liquid Feedback⁴, Your Priorities⁵, DemocracyOS⁶ and WeGov⁷. There is resistance from those who control the current system but I believe it will be futile because people are creating a shadow form of governance, or rather self-governance. This is happening on the fringes still, but it is moving towards the centre at a steady speed.

We need more studies to see the pros and cons of active voting systems and liquid democracy models, with delegates rather than representatives, for example.

We need to do the opposite of what Russell Brand is advocating, we need to use our votes. Even if we don’t want to engage with the current broken system, we should not use that as an excuse for apathy. We should see it as an encouragement to engage in creating our own alternatives, our new co-created systems; to be creative about it and to connect. Connectivity is the key to a rapid change; but information in itself is meaningless if we don’t know how to decode it into wisdom.

- See more at: http://newint.org/features/2015/01/01/democracy-digital-era-keynote/#sthash.QMZSz00U.dpuf

Democracy: upgrade = (re)Public – (r)evolution - (h)activist - H(e)art-h

The marrow from my speech at FutureEverything 2012 - a big thank you to Jodi Rose for making this beautiful PreziTation for me to use as a frame for the keynote.

Democracy:Upgrade on Prezi

Democracy: upgrade = (re)Public – (r)evolution - (h)activist - H(e)art-h

What is democracy?

Who is the system to serve?
What is a parliamentary representative?

Who does he pledge alliance to?

Who writes our laws?

What are the cornerstones of Democracy?

What is the purpose of a constitution?

I want you to think about these questions and find out what their content means to you.

I am an activist in parliament. The longer I serve, the more I think about the meaning of the questions I have just posed. The more I understand how the system works, the more obvious it is to me that there is a serious system error. The system is like the hard drive on computers you would have to defrag in order for them to work, the bigger the files the less efficient the computer would work. The problem with our systems is that they are too big, too alienated from the people they are supposed to serve. It is too difficult for the public to be able to influence and have impact on the (re) in the rePublic. Sometimes when the computer is too fragmented the best solution is to zero it in order for it to work, sometimes a complete system upgrade is the only way out. We have reached the point in our democracies that we need to zero the system and install a new system. We need to move away from the big complex to the small fast system, where each and every person has to understand that we are the stuff that makes the system. We are the system. We are the government. We are society. We are the power. We are the law. It is not beyond us, unreachable nor undesirable to be it, the system is a reflection of who we are.

In order to empower people to act on this awareness and to start to apply changes through our only means: through action, we need to have direct democracy with the liquid add-on. We need to craft our constitution for and by the people. (Constitution is the agreement of a nation on what sort of society they choose to be). Law is currently crafted by and for the 1% - we need to simplify our laws and make sure we agree on the spirit of the law, rather then adding on their complexity with endless patchwork.

The cornerstones of society are freedom of information, expression and speech. The Internet is the last free world, that has enabled us to connect, share, be informed, act and resample our creativity. The internet is now under serious attack, as the corporations and governments are trying to place their reins of power on it, in order to industrialize it and to have absolute control over how we connect, share, be informed, act and resample our creativity.

I am a hacker in parliament, I went into the system in order to understand how it works and my conclusion is clear: Install new system with a new form of democracy of the future, where we move away from democratic dictatorship with many representative heads to a direct responsibility of direct liquid democracy. Are you ready to be the co-creator of your society? Do you understand the importance of your participation? We are running out of planet, so for the future of everything it is time to wake up and start co-creating.

Success for IMMI in the European Parliament

European Parliament resolution of 14 March 2012 on the 2011 progress report on Iceland (2011/2884(RSP))

10. Reiterates its support for the Icelandic
Modern Media Initiative, and looks
forward to its transposition into law and
judicial practice, enabling both Iceland
and the EU to position themselves
strongly as regards legal protection of the
freedoms of expression and information;

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&reference=P7-TA-2012-0084&language=EN&ring=B7-2012-0125

http://immi.is

Twitter feed by exiledsurfer from my speech at wienerin12

Thanks to ‏ @exiledsurfer for tweeting nearly my entire speeach at wienerin12

 

start reading at bottom for a real timeline:)  

 

@birgittaj's final words: "Remember YOU ARE THE POWER. Don't forget it "

23mexiledsurfer ‏ @exiledsurfer

@birgittaj 'we allowed the collapse of finances in iceland to happen. we need to reclaim our responsibilities'

@birgittaj 'our democracies have become like dictators with many heads. we have a right to know who does what'

@birgittaj 'we have to downsoize our institutions, reclaim our democracies'

@birgittaj 'by us becoming more responsible, that choice will be easier, because we have to suffer the mistakes'

@birgittaj 'i want us to think about the consequences of our daily activities, because we are running out of time'

@birgittaj When they can't vote on it they traditionally tear the place down and write a new one anyhow!  

 

@birgittaj 'go home, find your constitution. read it. Do you think it is time to write a new social contract?'

@birgittaj 'how can a nnation not be allowed to vote on a new constitution? it is an absurd concept'

@birgittaj 'constitutions need to be rewritten BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE'

30mexiledsurfer ‏ @exiledsurfer

 

@birgittaj 'That can also be applied to financials, budgets. it is our money. we should have something to say about it

@birgittaj 'Think about direct democracy. we can aply changes and apply our will in a more efficient way'

@birgittaj 'no one is going to cocreate my dream other than me'

@birgittaj 'we have one aim, together: we want to be happy. Lets do it, because if we don't, no one will'

@birgittaj 'Crisis is not negative, it is the only time you can apply real social change'

@birgittaj 'i took the swiss model of a teax haven, and transformed it into a information haven'

@birgittaj '…to have the first country with protection of freedom of expression and speech'

34mexiledsurfer ‏ @exiledsurfer

 

@birgittaj 'by some miracle , i manged to push through the parliament to say yes unanimously to change 12 laws... 

 

@birgittaj 'freedom of information, expression and speech are the foundations of our societies'

@birgittaj 'we are at crossroads, we need access to information. if we dont have it we cannot make informed decisions'

@birgittaj 'we are going to have to change our life the way we live EVERY SINGLE DAY."

@birgittaj 'if we want to change the way things are, it starts with us. with me, with you"

@birgittaj 'this must be the century of the common people. we know this. the 1% don't know this'

@birgittaj 'we need to learn how to be strong together. there is no prince on a white horse'

@birgittaj 'we have to jump into the deep end of the pool, and see if we sink or swim"

@birgittaj 'nothing we do the first time is perfect. practice makes perfect. it is so important to remember that"

@birgittaj 'i was the first icelandic woman to do websites. i said to myself, i can do this. and i did." 

 

@birgittaj 'i want you to believe that you can do ANYTHING YOU WANT. if u believe otherwise, then u never do anything'

@birgittaj 'to learn to prioritize for what is good for our complete lives should be our goal'

@birgittaj 'my definition of power is to be true to mysylf and to be brutally honest with myself"

@birgittaj 'men should say i feel advantaged i am a man, a disabled person should feel advantaged as a disbled person"

@birgittaj 'i do not see myself as disadvantaged as a woman, i am advantaged. what a privilege"

@birgittaj 'if i am unhappy about something, i just do something about it'

@birgittaj 'power structures are not designed for single parents, men or women'

@birgittaj 'i dont want to reverse the pyramid of power, i want to live in a CIRCLE of power'

@birgittaj begins her keynote, overlooked by Kaiser Franz Joseph http://pic.twitter.com/uMaqXG50