Illustration by Susanne Gold/ text by Ted Ganten
In this clip you will get more information on “Terraism”.

As our terraistic association will hopefully contribute significantly to to solutions for the planetary challenges, it is important to structure him fit for the purpose. How many and which quality of rights of co determination do we want? How do we establish a governance that ensures that corrution is not endangering the goals? Let’s see first what we may want to avoid.

Is democracy a role model?

First and foremost, I would like to express a clear commitment to democracy. It is the best and most sustainable form of organization of nations and also supra-regional alliances to date. However, this should not prevent us from questioning this form of organization in certain areas. The most far-reaching attempts at organizational reform of democracy by the established political parties in Germany are currently limited to the reduction of the federal parliament and a few concrete demands for more referendums. However, it seems to me that a number of other issues have not yet been perfectly resolved. Since a terraist association is supposed to be trend-setting and effective, which elements do we want to take over and which should possibly be adapted.

How regional should a global organization be?

The community council, the district council, the district parliament, the state parliament, the Bundestag and the European Parliament all differentiate themselves from each other and are accountable to each other only to a limited extent. This complexity is difficult to understand. In spite of my general interest in politics – besides work, family, friends, sports, household and other hobbies – I do not have the time to deal with regional and subject matter responsibilities of all political actors, let alone their individual opinions. I read the last complete party program when I was 18 or 19. Although I familiarize myself every day with online newspapers, that is just enough for a superficial understanding of topics on the federal politics. That is it. I spend an hour a day on politics. More would interfere with my life style and balance. Does that make me an apolitical, antisocial outsider? In my predominantly academic neighborhood and among my friends, I seem to be at the upper end of the information scale! I can also confirm this for my 17 and 19-year-old daughters and their circles of friends. I find this a little scary. No one is really well informed.

Which contents are fit for co-determination?

There is hardly a concrete, political topic from the local community to European and German issues on which I could give a factually well-founded opinion. I am a family man, lawyer, manager and am used to making decisions in difficult situations on an incomplete, ambiguous database. On the question of whether the new EU data protection regulation (GDPR) makes sense or whether the urban railroad system in my city makes sense, I would have to work full-time for at least a few weeks – despite my inclination and legal education – in order to come close to a meaningful basis for decision-making. Even the relatively simple issue of a suburban railroad is an investment of 300 million euros. Money that may not be available for other projects, such as the expansion of daycare centers or health. The urban light rail system and the new EU data protection regulation are large, complex and interlinked topics with a history and a claim to anticipate an uncertain future.

Do we really want co-determination on subject matter topics?

I don’t have the time to deal adequately with even two of the hundreds of interesting and essential topics! So, I vote without any meaningful know-how. I guess a little. I follow my gut feeling. A single argument may build my opinion because I know it and it serves rather as a reasoning fig leaf in case I have to justify myself. Not even at the community level do I manage to get a minimum of clarity. Surely, I can be accused of not taking my democratic obligations serious and setting the wrong priorities in life. Possibly right. Unfortunately, I personally do not know a single citizen in Germany who sets the “right” priorities … democracy degenerates into child’s play. Nobody would make decisions of this magnitude for himself, his family or his company on such a poor fact basis.

Next week we will look into more traps to be avoided and will start to formulate answers for our terraistic association.