It took me a long time to get in contact with Vera R. Marcus. I had made the mistake of referring to her as the ‘self-described leader’ of the Detroit TAZ community in a recent GEAS report not knowing at the time that she expressively forbid anyone to refer to her as a leader. And so it took a lot of one-sided phone messages and emails to prove to her that I was legitimately interested in learning about Detroit TAZ for GEAS and that I was no party to the forces that continue to denounce their community.
Eventually I was able to communicate with her and other members of the Detroit TAZ community. I’m hoping that in time they will trust me enough to divulge more information on how they live, as what I have gathered so far is just a start towards a true understanding. I think its appropriate that I am going to describe a community that uses a “quantum governance model” in a non-linear way.
On the Detroit TAZ implementaion of quantum governance:
“When you and your people have been systematically disenfranchised from society, it only makes sense that you create a new society based on a different system.”
“We allow children to have a say in all decisions. Adults make sure that children don’t sacrifice their future by an indulgence in the present. Now children can ensure that adults don’t do the same and sacrifice their future. Most people are surprised when they learn how politically intelligent children can be.
“We decided not to follow a model of governance based on ecological or C2C ideas because the meme of social darwinism has contaminated these ideas beyond a practical implementation in politics.”
“Information is the new capital. Meaning can only be structured from information. Take an ant colony, for example. There is no one telling each ant how to divide the labour so the colony can survive. Each ant decides how she can best serve the community by a process of very simple information gathering and from that, a community emerges.”
“Detroit has been urban farming for over 10 years now. Our past is your future.”
“Think about your family traditions. You follow them even though they aren’t written down. You follow them because they are your traditions and they are your traditions because you follow them. That is the model that we use for governance.”
“We take the steps to ensure that everyone in the community has access to all available information about the community and superstructs emerge. It is information that makes the difference between feast or famine.”
“We have left the logocracy. We will no longer be governed by words or codes. Instead, we will be governed by stories.”
“If it is a choice between a cathedral and a bazaar, then we are a bazaar. If it is a choice between decisions being made by a crowd or a small group, we are the wisdom of the crowd.”
“Quantum thinking has proven useful in physics, computing, consciousness and even libraries. Why not apply its thinking to society? Its the only model that allows for the smallest force - say, the smile of a child - to carry resonance across the world. It gives us responsibility. It gives us hope.”
