*sigh*
I am not a US citizen, I am from New Zealand. Perhaps the change is more likely to occur for us. We have a political system that rarely gets anything significant achieved, but atleast we have a range of parties that get represented.
I guess we will just have to wait for a 'netizen' situation where the populations virtual worlds (through which they represent their desires) can be analysed and statistically translated to the laws governing the real world... this is the only Democratic situation I can truly envision.
Maybe if I was a dictator of a small country...:]
It is my belief that the argument for representation of the people in government is misleading and is really just Chomskys 'Necessary Illusion' in action. J.S.Mills 'wedge of coercion' is illustrated through the modern use of marketing tools that promote the idea that if everyone votes we have a democracy and as such everyone should vote. The problem is that the voting is skewed by market manipulations (the popularity contest) and the votes of the politically educated recieve only as much attention as the equally valued vote of the victim of the illusion (a.k.a. the delusional voter). If you follow this then perhaps you can see my argument for the non existence of Democracy. We are actually living in a 'Technocracy' - a society where those who have the greatest technology can assert control. It can only get worse with the genetic segmentation of the market that is coming.
So here is where I get to my solution: when voting one should be asked motivational questions. Ones that offer insight into why the voter is voting. If their motivation is value laden then let their vote count, otherwise further the questioning so by the end of questioning the system itself can identify what the voter would vote for if they had the knowledge base from which one could truly make informed decisions. In the process the user would become informed - but the information they recieve would have to be organised so as not to induce a bias.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh, for a second there I thought you were talking about seating. A sustainable sit would be nice, these damn office chairs are murder.
*sigh* I am not a US citizen, I am from New Zealand. Perhaps the change is more likely to occur for us. We have a political system that rarely gets anything significant achieved, but atleast we have a range of parties that get represented. I guess we will just have to wait for a 'netizen' situation where the populations virtual worlds (through which they represent their desires) can be analysed and statistically translated to the laws governing the real world... this is the only Democratic situation I can truly envision. Maybe if I was a dictator of a small country... :]
It is my belief that the argument for representation of the people in government is misleading and is really just Chomskys 'Necessary
Illusion' in action. J.S.Mills 'wedge of coercion' is illustrated through the modern use of marketing tools that promote the idea that if everyone votes we have a democracy and as such everyone should vote. The problem is that the voting is skewed by market manipulations (the popularity contest) and the votes of the politically educated recieve only as much attention as the equally valued vote of the victim of the illusion (a.k.a. the delusional voter).
If you follow this then perhaps you can see my argument for the non existence of Democracy. We are actually living in a 'Technocracy' - a society where those who have the greatest technology can assert control. It can only get worse with the genetic segmentation of the market that is coming.
So here is where I get to my solution: when voting one should be asked motivational questions. Ones that offer insight into why the voter is voting. If their motivation is value laden then let their vote count, otherwise further the questioning so by the end of questioning the system itself can identify what the voter would vote for if they had the knowledge base from which one could truly make informed decisions. In the process the user would become informed - but the information they recieve would have to be organised so as not to induce a bias.