Towards an Open Civics

Together, we are responsible for this planet that we call home. More of us are now awakening to the realization that our civilizational foundations are unstable as humanity’s life support systems and quality of life deteriorate on a planetary scale.

Our civilization is in crisis, marked by environmental degradation, social fragmentation, political corruption, and economic inequality. Many are realizing that these crises are systemic and interconnected, a meta-crisis that is driving humanity at an exponential rate towards breakdown and collapse.

It’s sobering to realize that people in positions of power are just as stuck within broken systems as we are. But within the grief or rage that many of us feel at the state of our world is a deep yearning to participate in and care for the places we call home.

Instead of inadequate and short-term remedies, ignoring or numbing the sources of suffering, or reactively dismantling systems because of their dysfunction, we choose to address the root problems causing our current civilizational crisis. We recognize that these root problems are phenomena that stem from fundamental societal agreements that can be changed.

We believe a participatory, vital and resilient civilization is possible.

If we accept that our current crises are the result of our systems themselves, it becomes our civic responsibility to create new civic systems and rebuild our capacity to reimagine and redesign how civil society is organized from the bottom up.

Liberating the natural impulse of the human spirit to envision and co-create a more beautiful world is one of the greatest endeavors of our time and invokes a return to the original meaning of civics.

The origin of the word civics comes from in an act of care, an expression of solidarity and devotion rooted in mutuality and shared belonging – a crown or garland of oak leaves and acorns, bestowed on a soldier who had saved the life of a citizen in battle. Reclaiming this original spirit in a contemporary context, civics is both the stewardship and management of civilizational systems of care.

We are beginning to remember that, as participants in civil society, we are all civic stewards. As civic stewards, we realize that it’s up to us to create the conditions in which all human beings are empowered to meet their basic needs, make choices aligned with their unique perspectives, and steward thriving ecologies. The choice to be a civic steward is to take responsibility for our world with courage, creativity, and devotion.

And when our systems of civic stewardship are insufficient to empower the necessary adaptive response to shifting circumstances or crises, some civic stewards rise into the role of civic innovator. The choice to be a civic innovator is to take responsibility for the improvement of civic systems that empower others to be civic stewards.

Civic innovation is the collaborative research, development, and improvement of civic utilities and civic systems that are important for the public good.

This spirit of responsible civic stewardship as innovators calls for an **open civics:** a process of synergistic collaboration and civilizational stewardship that engages in the evolutionary adaptation of our core civilizational systems.

An open civics is a rebirth of the original meaning of civics. We see this civic renaissance as a renewal of the civic virtue of mutual care and responsibility, values that are embedded in a renewal of civic culture.

This design process engages the public and all willing participants in a participatory design process that empowers civic innovators, organizers, and patrons to work better, together.

This pledge is an invitation to collaborate on a civilization-scale Apollo Project for the shared purpose of reinvigorating civic culture and innovating vital, resilient, and participatory civic systems that empower thriving humans, thriving communities, thriving organizations, and thriving ecologies. The choice is ours to imagine and create a better future open civilization.

Together, as civic stewards, we choose to:

• align with others to forge collective sense-making and positive-sum relationships.

• coordinate with others to engage in non-rivalrous sharing and mutual learning.

• collaborate with others to generate novel public goods that meet public needs.

• resource with others to support critical civic innovation through all forms of capital.

• convene with others to host inclusive gatherings that nurture relationships and capacities.

• learn with others to surface and share valuable knowledge, resources, and curricula.