Finding Our Common Humanity - working paper

 

 

Important Information for Participants

 

Participants in the Jewish-Muslim Email Dialogue, Finding Our Common Humanity, will vote on messages that they themselves write.  The dialogue will proceed in rounds, one round a week for five weeks.  Each round will have two parts, first writing and then voting.  It is important coming into the dialogue that you commit both to writing a message every week and then reading and rating a few of the messages written by others.  This will be time consuming and since nobody has any time in Los Angeles, please consider carefully before joining the dialogue.  Though it is just for five weeks, we need a real commitment.  You can figure it will take you about two or three hours each week.

 

Dates

 

The dialogue rounds run Monday-to-Monday, beginning March 28, 2005 and concluding May 2.  One very good thing is that you can participate from home over the Internet.  Easy instructions, round by round, will come to you by email.  You must have an email account to take part.  Fortunately, there are a number of ways to get free email over the web, so if you are very motivated, it is possible to participate through your local library even if you do not have the Internet at home.  Go to google.com and search for "free email account".

 

Registering

 

Begin by registering on the web at http://groupdialog.org/register.  You will need the password from the wallet-sized card you were given.  If you have not been given a card, go to groupdialog.org/humanrights/leadparticipants.htm and apply to one of the listed dialogue leaders for a password.  

 

Preparation

 

In preparation for the dialogue, please read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations in 1948.  Links to the UDHR and to many other useful documents that are good background for the dialogue are available at http://groupdialog.org/humanrights/links.htm.  Please do take some time to browse these links, most especially the Universal Declaration.  The dialogue lead participants are agreed that the topic of human rights is a good starting place for "Finding Our Common Humanity".  Once into the dialogue, the participants are welcome to take the conversation where they want.  The dialogue is not expected to come to any definite consensus position, but rather to develop into a useful and continuing exchange of thoughts and opinions.

 

Post-Dialogue Meeting

 

On Sunday May 22, there will be a post-dialogue meeting of participants on the Westside, exact details to be announced.  While there is no requirement that participants attend that meeting, we hope that you will want to meet your fellow dialoguers to evaluate the experience and talk about directions the dialogue might take if it is to continue.  For instance, the dialogue could be opened up to other faiths, or refocused on a different topic, or you name it.  A panel of experts will discuss the results along with the participants.

 

For more information go to http://groupdialog.org/HumanRights.

 

 

The Concepts behind the Dialogue

 

The LA Jewish-Muslim Email Dialogue will use collective communication to build consensus in a non-confrontational way.  Each of these three terms needs a short explanation.

 

Collective communication is an innovative form of communication between groups.  Instead of communicating through a spokesperson, members of a group write messages and then vote to select the one message that best represents the group.  A benefit of this method is that it is democratic and involving. 

 

The dialogue will build consensus because there will be a third group to take part, that of the two groups combined into one.  The messages selected by the combined group will represent the common humanity of the Jewish and Muslim participants, giving the advantage to those who are looking for a positive outcome.

 

The dialogue will be non-confrontational in that it will be structured so the common voice of the two groups mediates the interaction and the two groups never directly engage each other.  This is best seen in the accompanying diagram.  In words, the dialogue will proceed in alternating "together" and "apart" rounds.  First, there will be a "together" round producing one message to represent the common humanity of the two groups.  Then there will be an "apart" round producing two messages, one from each of the groups separately.  Then a together round and so forth.  The two groups never respond directly to each other.  This structure reinforces the consensus building aspect and, importantly under the circumstances, should altogether prevent a negative outcome.

 

Given this structure, the dialogue will attract people looking for a positive, relationship-building outcome between Jews and Muslims in Los Angeles.  Let us therefore begin the dialogue with faith in our fellow dialoguers and renewed hope for the world.

 

 

Finding Our Common Humanity - working paper

 

 

 

 

The Vision

 

 

Because the dialogue is automated via email and the web, it can, as a practical matter, be developed into a worldwide system of dialogues capped by a voice of humanity.  Everyone with an interest in the direction of human affairs will want to participate in such a system.  Each of the religions and nations will have its own "collective voice", as will the two sexes and a huge variety of interest groups.

 

What these large groups have to say, particularly what humanity as a whole has to say, will be of double interest.  Firstly, the method of selection favors "interesting" messages, but also everyone will want to read the winning messages just to stay in the know.  Sermons will be preached.  Legislators will quote.  Commentators will write op-ed articles.  A bandwagon effect will bring the winning messages to global consciousness.

 

So, what is it that humanity as a whole agrees upon?  Two things.  Love and wit.  We cannot expect agreement upon particulars (except where there is a win-win solution) but we can expect that the expressions of humanity will be consistently kind and humorous.  Over time, these expressions will reframe the political and cultural context, redefining the "other" in more positive terms, and giving the advantage to those who share a global perspective.