(From Dr. Rodin's Concluding Remarks at the Plenary Meeting of December 10, 1996)

More than two hundred years ago, our Colonial predecessors developed some unique mechanisms of communication and collective intellection as they grappled their way toward, first, independence, and later, towards more effective forms of governance. Through dozens of "Committees of Correspondence," the soon-to-be revolutionary leaders shared information, insights, and opinions among the thirteen colonies, as the conflict with Great Britain developed.

These private conversations, carried on over what were then great distances and differences of circumstance, attitudes, and politics, began the process of binding together the future leaders of a single nation. Indeed, a majority of the delegates to the First Continental Congress were members of the Committees of Correspondence.

On this garden trellis of communication grew the foliage of revolutionary ideas that would eventually reach full flower in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and another unique exercise in the power of ideas: The Federalist Papers. But what is most remarkable about this period is the degree to which ideas and rational debate were the stuff and substance of public discourse.

Today, new technologies such as the Internet offer the potential to create modern parallels--on a global scale--to these Colonial patterns of communication and rational discourse.

In some ways, our Colonial predecessors had it easy. By and large, they already shared a common intellectual tradition. As men of the English Enlightenment, they were already committed to both the form and substance of rational debate. They believed passionately in the power of reason to inform and guide human behavior, the uniqueness of the nascent American nation, and the naturalness of the rights they espoused. They had the wonderful advantage of living in the first dawn of a clearly defined intellectual era, an era that they helped to give concrete form, and an era that-- almost --swept away much that is problematic, unruly, violent, and irrational in human behavior.

Alas, for us, it is not so simple. We live in the twilight of their era. We live with the horrors of the 20th century. We live in a world that--though it still values the forms of Enlightenment reason and government--seems to have forgotten their substance. Their simple and appealing faith in the reasonableness of every individual, the power of ideas to shape the world for good, and the ability of argument to sway and control passions seems almost quaint. Indeed, we live in a time when the world our ancestors created seems to have turned upon itself. The very tradition they helped to develop is itself at issue in many of the conflicts with which we are confronted.

Some respond to this situation by trying to restore a mythic past. Others reject all that has come before. Either way, the rest of us are deprived of the common framework we need to wrestle intelligently with the issues of the day-- and with each other. That makes our task substantially tougher than that of our Colonial predecessors. But it may also provide us with clues to the nature of the profound cultural and intellectual crisis through which some believe we are living.

If that is the case, then there is no better period to which we might turn for guidance than Colonial America. There are important lessons to be drawn from this period. These lessons have guided us in conceiving of this Commission. I hope they will remain at the heart of our collective effort.

First among these lessons is the critical importance of leadership. It took individual leadership and initiative to form the Committees of Correspondence, to state publicly what were then treasonable political views, and to foment a revolution as much of ideas as of politics, national identity, or economics. The importance of leaders has motivated us to assemble as members of this Commission academic leaders of every stripe and opinion and widely divergent expertise. To this we have added leaders in journalism, business, politics, and literature--and we expect to add more as our work progresses. Around the Commission itself, we hope to build two concentric networks--one of the hundreds of writers, academics, and opinion leaders who could not be included, but whose views and reactions to our work can make important contributions to its evolution. Think of them as our own "committee of correspondence" if you will. And, as our ideas develop, we also plan to reach out to emerging leaders in many fields; to share with them the ideas and insights we are developing--both to test them and to begin the process of outreach and dissemination of the Commission's work.

The second lesson we can draw from the Colonial period is the importance of dialogue. After all, it was in the exchanges of the Committees of Correspondence, the debates of the Continental Congresses, and writings of Federalist and anti-Federalist alike, that the common framework of a nation was formed. We may not be able to recreate that framework, but we can take away the lesson that only in serious and continuing dialogue can a new framework be fashioned. Throughout our work, the creation of a continuing and fruitful dialogue will be essential. First, among the members of the Commission itself--as we have begun over the past two days. Second, between the Commission members and the wider network of interested contributors and commentators. And finally, with emerging leaders and those who must in the end put our ideas to work. In creating and sustaining this dialogue, we hope to use all the rapidly evolving technologies of the Internet and global communications to ease, support, and enhance our work.

And finally, running through both of these lessons is an even more fundamental insight: an appreciation of the power and saliency of ideas. Ideas in the minds and voices of leaders. Ideas shared and debated in passionate and articulate dialogue. Ideas set loose to change the world in the way that only ideas can. It is first and foremost with the content of ideas that we will be concerned. First, in understanding the ideas that drive the phenomena we have explored only in a preliminary way in this first meeting. Second, in offering new ideas, interpretations and con-ceptualizations to reframe public discourse. And finally, by putting those ideas to work in the public sphere, initially through leaders and later, hopefully, by engaging the general public. . . .

Our intention is to pursue this task in three phases:

First, by commissioning original scholarly analyses of a variety of contemporary issues to clarify their intellectual and historical roots. We think of this process as "peeling back the onion" to identify the ideas and commitments that are at the heart of contemporary conflict and discord.

But merely identifying the sources of polarization and ideological commitment will not be sufficient. We must then look for the commonalties across issues. From this we may discern in our discussions -- and explore through thematic analyses -- the larger shape of the cultural and intellectual crisis through which we seem to be living. Finally, with a deeper understanding of the underlying dynamics, we should be able to frame some new interpretions and conceptualizations of contemporary conflicts in ways that open them to new possibilities of rational debate and respectful disagreement.

The ideas in conflict around us are too fundamental to be amenable to simplistic solutions or moralistic exhortations. But I do believe that ideas are never stagnant. Dialogue, creativity, and leadership have the capacity to put new ideas and new ways of thinking into play at any moment. . . .

Like the debates and exchanges of the Colonial era, we hope to stimulate within and around the Commission a process that might truly be called "collective intellection."

Out of this process, we will create and distribute a variety of educational and informational materials: as publications, videos, CD-ROMs, or in other emerging formats, as well as--of course--on our own World Wide Web site. We want to take full advantage of the unprecedented opportunities offered by the rapid evolution of new interactive technologies and instant global communicatons.

Through all these means, we hope to share our ideas with those wider networks of interested colleagues, emerging leaders, and ultimately, with the general public. Not as moralistic imperatives or didactic solutions, but as elements of a useful, new vocabulary for thinking seriously about things that really matter in our society and in our lives.

Along the way, we also hope to create a new model for serious and productive inter-disciplinary and multi-professional communication. And we want to demonstrate--concretely and realistically--that professional and scholarly leaders can be brought together to make a real collective contribution to the daily life of our society.

But to do that, first must come the ideas-- and the hard intellectual work that we have begun . . . .