• vivadanang@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is well put. Thank you for sharing; I agree, but worry we don’t have time for soft revolutions as the world burns.

    • TinyPizza@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      If we go hard revolution I feel like we end up getting fucked by who ends up on top, regardless of the views they support. We potentially end up with a new government and a new system of government, but that machinery also takes forever to get functioning correctly. I think it takes a lot more time in the long run than stacking victories for digital direct democracy and getting it incrementally implemented. The reasoning being that changing it from within still allows us to functionally address the evolving problems we’re currently facing and the cascading effects that are soon to come.

      If digital direct democracy can prove itself highly adept and quickly adaptable at addressing these problems then maybe its widespread adoption becomes preferable even to those who stand to lose power. If it’s revolution in the streets then so be it. But what if instead we can inspire a choice in humanity to believe in each other and move on to the next era of civilization?

      I fucking hate Milton Friedman, but he was known to say that in times of crisis and stagnation society will grasp for any ideas that are just laying around. Here in the states that grotesque piece of shit used that to ram neo-classical economics and neo-liberal policy into the heart of our society. And that was mostly on the back of stagflation and a made up gas crisis. People here have been ramping up to eat each others faces for 8 years and if we can simultaneously shock the status quo and make the narrative creators stumble then maybe it’ll be enough for people to see that exit ramp and opt to take it instead.

      I’ve been knocking on doors talking to people from both sides of the spectrum and when it clicks in their mind that there’s a way to have no more politicians or political parties or people telling them how they’re going to live their life (civil rights and liberties excluded of course;) there’s a look on their face that makes me want to keep at it. Taxes as low locally as they can possibly be? Go right ahead and they can all see where dirt roads and no schools goes. Turn 1/3 of the local streets into no/low car areas? Pull up your municipalities budget and see if you think the data makes it a compelling community investment. We can democratize these devices and information systems at our fingertips to actually give us the ability to wield collective power with perspective and guidance based on unbiased data. If that can be harnessed by a single state, province, or region and run for long enough, I think it will begin to spread faster than we might think.

      Humans are tool and culture based animals. It only takes one to see another doing something before the act of benefit is repeated. People who saw some of the first wood and cloth planes fly also saw motherfuckers landing on the moon. Maybe this can be like that but with a purpose. Imagining what happens if a unified humanity had unlimited support for arts, science and technology gives me goosebumps. More than anything I wish that’s where we could get to and I think DDD is the path that potentially leads there.

      • vivadanang@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        digital direct democracy is fascinating but I see way too many power structures that would violently oppose it’s implementation, heck, even it’s discussion here in the US. is it something you think is achievable in the UK?