Free One Way Forward by Lawrence Lessig Page A

That unless we solve this problem, we won’t solve anything else. Unless we press pause on the endless game of “hacking at the branches of evil” and spend at least a cycle or two “striking at the root,” we won’t get anywhere fighting any of the many evils that motivate all of us as citizens.
    So you need to recruit your friends, your neighbors, your school, your followers on Twitter, to help us strike at this root. You need to recruit root strikers—those rare and powerful souls who can get others to see why we must first solve this if we’re to solve anything.
    Now, when I tried to persuade Jon Stewart to become a root striker, he didn’t much like the name. He suggested “batmen” as a better moniker. Much less geeky. Much, much cooler: That’s Stewart versus Lessig in a nutshell.
    But whether root striker or batman, the point is the same. It doesn’t take a genius to recognize this argument. It simply takes someone willing to connect the dots. Become a member of this campaign— Rootstrikers.org —and help us show others how these dots connect. And how we can reform the system that connects them.

The Work for the Net(works)
     
    These four steps are a start. They would begin a process that would push the politics of reform that this nation desperately needs.
    But alone, they are not enough. The core argument of this book is that the reform we need will require a critical discipline by all of us. It will take each of us, and the networks that constitute us, learning to work with people who are different—who believe in different things, who want a different politics. This reform will require us to learn how to work with the other side to make the ultimate fight with the other side fair, and effective.
    There’s no website for this. There won’t be a commander or any single entity that will make this happen. Instead, it will require an alliance that is organic and authentic and that builds from the grass roots up. Occupiers must invite Tea Partiers to coffee (or tea). Tea Partiers must have sessions at their conventions about whether cooperation is possible. The Coffee Party must reach out to the organizations pushing to amend the Constitution: Everyone must take the first steps to allow a wide range of different groups to begin to work together.
    The simplest way to enable such coordination would be for some to take the lead in constituting a Citizens’ Convention. The Citizens’ Convention would aim to do nothing more than provide a framework within which a common platform for change might be developed. As with CallAConvention.org , it would be cross-partisan. But it could begin a regular process, meeting virtually (maybe every month) and physically (maybe twice a year) to gather and hash out a common platform of demands.
    This alliance must affirm, not hide, its differences. It must recognize that it speaks not for a single movement but for allies aiming at a common goal. Eisenhower should be the model. Diversity—like an alliance that could include the Soviet Union as well as the United States—should be its character. Its focus should be the single common enemy that has corrupted this Republic. Its aim must be to map the process by which we, #outsiders, defeat that enemy. Together. As one people, but not one network. As a federation, with radical differences among us, committed nonetheless to the one end we all must achieve: a government that we could have reason to trust.
    Our age has given us many different leaders, from Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) to Markos Moulitsas (Daily Kos) to Meckler and Martin (Tea Party Patriots). They reflect a diversity of networks, working on every important issue. They sometimes represent power enough to make the insiders listen.
    Let us learn how this diversity can act now as one network, as an inter-network, as a cooperating crowd, embracing the open-source principles that define our age, and using them to restore this Republic.

Conclusion
     

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