Cohousing-L Mailing List: Concensus vs voting

[Mark Ottenberg (mao]

I ran across the following thaughts in another group that I belong to that
believes strongly in groups and concensus.  I thaught they might be useful
to pass around.

                                        -- Mark

>I came up with several notions which I'd like to share with you. I'll
>mention these in my paper as well, but I couldn't wait. 
>
>IDEA 1
>
>The unit of decision information should not be "yes" or "no"
>The unit of decision information should be a statement of values and ideas.
>
>Yes and No cannot be synthesized, only tallied.
>Statements of values and ideas must be synthesized.
>
>Yes and No means that the majority rules.
>Statements of values and ideas require consensus.
>
>Yes and No can only be changed to No and Yes, respectively.
>Statements of values and ideas can be changed infintely.
>
>Yes and No say nothing about commitment and ownership.
>Statements of values and ideas are owned by those who make them.
>
>Yes and No leave the creation to others; we only approve or disapprove.
>Statements of values and ideas must be created by us.
>
>Yes and No are responses to choices.
>Statements are already chosen. Their synthesis requires creation.
>
>