There is something particular about being among the first. Not a privilege — a responsibility. The responsibility of carrying an idea at a moment when it has no visibility yet, when it rests on no institutional momentum, when the only argument available is the conviction that something real is being born.
This article gives the floor — in the form of composite testimonies, representative of what the first Sageocrats share — to those who chose to register before the movement was visible, before the map was displayed, before the book was published. Their experience says something essential about what it means to belong to the beginning of something.
« I needed my commitment to have an address »
Complex systems engineer, 41, Montreal.
« For fifteen years I have worked on questions of systems resilience. I have read hundreds of articles on governance, the limits of representative democracy, the possible alternatives. But all of that remained theoretical — ideas with no place to set them down.
When I discovered Sageocracy, what struck me first was not the principles — I recognized things I already knew, formulated differently. What struck me was the existence of a registry. A place where my stance counts formally, where it is dated, where it is added to those of other people in other countries. I needed my commitment to have an address. Now it has one. »
« It’s not an act of faith — it’s an act of lucidity »
Professor of political philosophy, 58, Lyon.
« It took me a while before registering. Not because I doubted the principles — they seemed right to me from the first reading. But because I have a professional distrust of projects that promise to change everything. I have seen too many end in disappointment or co-optation.
What convinced me was precisely the modesty of the proposed mechanism. Sageocracy does not promise a revolution. It proposes a shift of legitimacy, gradual, democratic, which does not require everyone to agree — only that enough people formally signify a direction. It is not an act of faith in a radiant future. It is an act of lucidity about the fact that existing systems are no longer enough, and that we must begin to build something else while they are still working. »
« I wanted my children to know that I had chosen »
Entrepreneur, 34, Nairobi.
« I have run a social enterprise in Kenya for six years. We work on economic models that integrate environmental and social externalities — what Sageocracy ultimately calls the HCC, even if we didn’t call it that.
What moved me in Sageocracy is the dimension of the registry as a historical act. In twenty years, there will be a date on which I signified that I wanted something else. My children will be able to verify it. Institutions will be able to verify it. I wanted that date to exist. Not to be recognized — to have chosen. »
What the first signatories have in common
Beyond their differences in background, country and profession, the first Sageocrats share a few recurring traits in the way they describe their registration.
The first is lucid disillusionment. They are not disengaged — they are often more engaged than average in their respective fields. But they have exhausted the forms of engagement available within existing frameworks and are looking for something that operates at a different level.
The second is the need for formalization. Many already shared Sageocracy’s principles before knowing it — they were thinking from syntony, the living, contribution, without having the vocabulary for it. Registration provided them with a place to formally set down what they were already carrying.
The third is the awareness of acting over the long term. The first signatories do not expect to see the shift in their lifetime — or at least, not tomorrow. They register because they believe that the acts performed now, before the movement is visible, have a value of their own. They are building something for afterward.
« Being among the first does not mean being right before the others. It means accepting to build without yet seeing what one is building. »
The testimonies presented in this article are representative compositions, constructed from the feedback received by the association. They do not correspond to identifiable persons.