Skip to main content

How to turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans

Such is the title of a great article in the Atlantic magazine. The article clearly articulates why the US political system is completely broken, and not even close to a "democracy".  In my view, the system has devolved into a religious war - there is no room for compromise, intelligence, facts, or the good of the people.  There is only room for bickering, hard stances, and 100% faith in your party.

As many of the comments point out, while the article outlines some ideas for fixing the system...it gives no guidance as to "how."  Obama's social media campaign in the last election was largely one-way: he broadcast his message to people through SMS and twitter.  Perhaps two-way social media is now at a point where average people can have their voices heard.  That said, Google Groups or Facebook Groups don't seem to be organized enough, or mature enough, to handle the task of synthesizing the voice of large groups of individuals into something cohesive and comprehensible.  I am sure that attempts at such systems exist on the Web, but none of them spring to mind to me.  Hopefully there is a start-up out there with this as their goal.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Timed math tests

You have 3.2 seconds to figure out the problem below. Alan knows 90% of the concepts behind the math test, and can do those 90% very quickly.  He always gets 90% on timed math tests. Bob knows 100% of the concepts, but is a slow worker.  In the timed math test, he gets 75%, but, if given an extra 10 minutes, would get 100%. Alan graduates with an A; Bob with a C. You are building a bridge. Who would you hire? Seems like everyone from Gates to Zuckerberg has problems with how education is carried out today.  I wish I had some of their clout and could help to change the system.
Post a Comment
Read more

Decentralization, Democracy, and Well-Being

Those of us raised in Democratic societies take it for granted that those societies provide better well-being (for common individuals) than other forms of governance. At the heart of democracy is personal freedom and autonomy, backed by the rule of law. We also take for granted the interplay of decentralized versus centralized authority. Decentralization can mean many things, but here we refer to it in terms of power, authority, and decision making. The more authority individuals have, the more decentralized the power system in which they are operating.  Almost by definition the more democratic a system, the more decentralized it is, with the caveat that some agreed upon axioms exist, such as the rule of law and its enforcement. Of course, authority can be too decentralized leading to "every man for themselves", so we put limits on decentralization through that same rule of law. With the advent of decentralizing technologies , which make possible more decentraliz...
Read more