Sunday, May 29, 2011
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Statement of purpose and rules outline
I would be interested in participating in a social experiment in which members of this forum signed up for a group in which each member got a turn dictating something people had to do for one week.
For example, if there were ten people total, once every ten weeks you would be king for the week. At this time you could mandate that each member of the Monarchy must floss twice a day, or make their own sandwich for lunch, or read and discuss a certain passage of literature.
Necessarily, mandates could not be too time consuming (no expecting people to read an entire book, for example) or expensive. In fact, I would say that ideally, mandates would be things which took almost no time or money but which you simply considered to be easily-implemented improvements on daily life, like the flossing example. Perhaps mandates could also involve reassigning leisure time, like "once a week spend 30 minutes you would've spent watching TV talking to a relative either on the phone or in person".
There could be a voting system for retaining mandates after the week was up, or something like that, I am open to ideas.
People could opt out of the Monarchy at any time, and also join at any time, although joining would require you to start practicing any current mandates and put you at the very end of the list of who was to be king. Perhaps we could also arrange that people could opt out of individual mandates, but be pushed further back on the list for king each time they do so.
I am interested in doing this for purposes of self-improvement and finding new things I enjoy, by the way. I think it would work best if other people wanted something like that too, such that we were all consistently getting something out of the mandates.
here are some rules i am thinking would be good to have in addition to the basic structure:
1) opting out - at any time you may opt out of the kingdom entirely. you may also opt out of an individual mandate entirely at the cost of waiting an additional four weeks to next become king.
2) spirit of the mandate - if you cannot reasonably perform the mandate, you may explain the circumstances and propose a substitute which is in the spirit of the mandate. assuming the king approves you may then perform the substitute with no penalty. if the king does not you may opt out or delay the mandate.
3) delaying the mandate - if you cannot perform the mandate now, but can at a later date, you may explain the circumstances and propose another date at which you could perform the mandate. assuming the king approves this can be done with no penalty. if not you may opt out.
> 3a) a mandate may be delayed no longer than one additional week. therefore a mandate which requires something to be done every day for a week cannot be delayed longer than a week (if you need to delay it longer than until the next sunday you cannot. you must opt out instead).
> 3b) you cannot become king with unperformed mandates. if you delay a mandate until the week after it is proclaimed, and that is the week in which you were meant to become king, you will have to wait an extra week to become king also.
4) opting out, spirit of the mandate, and delaying the mandate can all be combined as much as necessary. you could delay a mandate for a week while you were out of town, suggest another action in the spirit of the mandate when you got back because you had come down with flu, and ultimately opt out entirely for that action because your flu wouldn't go away.
5) joining the kingdom - anyone at any time can join the kingdom. they must immediately begin practicing existing mandates (but not catching up on expired ones) and are added to the end of the list of people waiting to become king.
6) duration of mandates - if a mandate is a one-time thing (for example: go on a date with a man (please don't suggest this, it's just a pun on mandate!)), the king can choose to simply let it go at the end of his week or propose a duration version of it (go on a date with a man again!). a better example would be: tell the person you appreciate most in the world that you do and why you do so. at the end of his reign the king could propose the similar mandate "tell the person you appreciate most in the world whom you haven't told yet under this mandate that you do and why you do so".
if a mandate is a constant thing, like "floss twice a day", no duration wording need by applied.
at any time all members of the kingdom have the opportunity to vote against existing mandates. any mandate which receives 30% of the kingdom voting against it at any time has been voted out of existence, and ceases to apply immediately (or at the end of its first week, if the first week is not yet up). votes against can be retracted at any time, but once a mandate has received 30% votes against retracting negative votes cannot bring it back into practice.
For example, if there were ten people total, once every ten weeks you would be king for the week. At this time you could mandate that each member of the Monarchy must floss twice a day, or make their own sandwich for lunch, or read and discuss a certain passage of literature.
Necessarily, mandates could not be too time consuming (no expecting people to read an entire book, for example) or expensive. In fact, I would say that ideally, mandates would be things which took almost no time or money but which you simply considered to be easily-implemented improvements on daily life, like the flossing example. Perhaps mandates could also involve reassigning leisure time, like "once a week spend 30 minutes you would've spent watching TV talking to a relative either on the phone or in person".
There could be a voting system for retaining mandates after the week was up, or something like that, I am open to ideas.
People could opt out of the Monarchy at any time, and also join at any time, although joining would require you to start practicing any current mandates and put you at the very end of the list of who was to be king. Perhaps we could also arrange that people could opt out of individual mandates, but be pushed further back on the list for king each time they do so.
I am interested in doing this for purposes of self-improvement and finding new things I enjoy, by the way. I think it would work best if other people wanted something like that too, such that we were all consistently getting something out of the mandates.
here are some rules i am thinking would be good to have in addition to the basic structure:
1) opting out - at any time you may opt out of the kingdom entirely. you may also opt out of an individual mandate entirely at the cost of waiting an additional four weeks to next become king.
2) spirit of the mandate - if you cannot reasonably perform the mandate, you may explain the circumstances and propose a substitute which is in the spirit of the mandate. assuming the king approves you may then perform the substitute with no penalty. if the king does not you may opt out or delay the mandate.
3) delaying the mandate - if you cannot perform the mandate now, but can at a later date, you may explain the circumstances and propose another date at which you could perform the mandate. assuming the king approves this can be done with no penalty. if not you may opt out.
> 3a) a mandate may be delayed no longer than one additional week. therefore a mandate which requires something to be done every day for a week cannot be delayed longer than a week (if you need to delay it longer than until the next sunday you cannot. you must opt out instead).
> 3b) you cannot become king with unperformed mandates. if you delay a mandate until the week after it is proclaimed, and that is the week in which you were meant to become king, you will have to wait an extra week to become king also.
4) opting out, spirit of the mandate, and delaying the mandate can all be combined as much as necessary. you could delay a mandate for a week while you were out of town, suggest another action in the spirit of the mandate when you got back because you had come down with flu, and ultimately opt out entirely for that action because your flu wouldn't go away.
5) joining the kingdom - anyone at any time can join the kingdom. they must immediately begin practicing existing mandates (but not catching up on expired ones) and are added to the end of the list of people waiting to become king.
6) duration of mandates - if a mandate is a one-time thing (for example: go on a date with a man (please don't suggest this, it's just a pun on mandate!)), the king can choose to simply let it go at the end of his week or propose a duration version of it (go on a date with a man again!). a better example would be: tell the person you appreciate most in the world that you do and why you do so. at the end of his reign the king could propose the similar mandate "tell the person you appreciate most in the world whom you haven't told yet under this mandate that you do and why you do so".
if a mandate is a constant thing, like "floss twice a day", no duration wording need by applied.
at any time all members of the kingdom have the opportunity to vote against existing mandates. any mandate which receives 30% of the kingdom voting against it at any time has been voted out of existence, and ceases to apply immediately (or at the end of its first week, if the first week is not yet up). votes against can be retracted at any time, but once a mandate has received 30% votes against retracting negative votes cannot bring it back into practice.
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