#directdemocracy — Public Fediverse posts

https://www.europesays.com/ch/104108/ How Swiss schools abroad teach democracy in autocratic countries #Article #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissDiaspora #DirectDemocracy #Multi #Politics(general) #ProductionTypeAdaptation #Swiss #Switzerland

Sécurité intérieure et souveraineté commune : le communalisme comme désarmement du dedans

Si la sécurité extérieure relève d’abord d’un désarmement global ou d’une tutelle de transition, la sécurité intérieure doit revenir au peuple souverain lui-même : la commune. C’est là que se joue l’autonomie concrète, la responsabilité partagée et la capacité à faire société sans État.#Communalism #DirectDemocracy #Commons #SelfGovernance #Autonomy #PoliticalTheory #Degrowth La…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/securite-interieure-et-souverainete-commune-le-communalisme-comme-desarmement-du-dedans/

Sécurité intérieure et souveraineté commune : le communalisme comme désarmement du dedans

Si la sécurité extérieure relève d’abord d’un désarmement global ou d’une tutelle de transition, la sécurité intérieure doit revenir au peuple souverain lui-même : la commune. C’est là que se joue l’autonomie concrète, la responsabilité partagée et la capacité à faire société sans État. #Communalism #DirectDemocracy #Commons #SelfGovernance #Autonomy #PoliticalTheory #Degrowth La…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/securite-interieure-et-souverainete-commune-le-communalisme-comme-desarmement-du-dedans/

Sécurité intérieure et souveraineté commune : le communalisme comme désarmement du dedans

Si la sécurité extérieure relève d’abord d’un désarmement global ou d’une tutelle de transition, la sécurité intérieure doit revenir au peuple souverain lui-même : la commune. C’est là que se joue l’autonomie concrète, la responsabilité partagée et la capacité à faire société sans État. #Communalism #DirectDemocracy #Commons #SelfGovernance #Autonomy #PoliticalTheory #Degrowth La…

https://homohortus31.wordpress.com/2026/07/10/securite-interieure-et-souverainete-commune-le-communalisme-comme-desarmement-du-dedans/

https://www.europesays.com/ch/99646/ Cantonal majority: an obstacle that could scupper the Swiss-EU deal #Article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #ForeignAffairs #Multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #Swiss #Switzerland

DATE: July 7, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: Do attractive politicians govern differently than their peers?

URL: https://www.psypost.org/good-looks-might-win-elections-but-they-do-not-dictate-policy/

It is widely documented that attractive political candidates often enjoy a distinct advantage at the ballot box, but new research suggests this aesthetic appeal does not change how they govern once elected. A study published in the European Journal of Political Economy found that better-looking politicians do not engage in more rent-seeking behavior or deviate more frequently from their voters’ preferences. The findings indicate that in a transparent political system, physical appearance offers no noticeable leeway for elected officials to act against the interests of their constituents.

Research across multiple disciplines demonstrates that physical attractiveness yields measurable real-world benefits, a phenomenon economists often call the beauty premium. Good-looking individuals frequently experience advantages in hiring scenarios, university admission rates, and starting salaries across various industries. This psychological bias, often referred to as the halo effect, leads people to unconsciously associate a pleasing physical appearance with unrelated positive traits, such as high competence, superior intelligence, and upstanding moral character.

This visual bias bleeds heavily into democratic elections. Past studies routinely demonstrate that visually appealing political candidates tend to secure more favorable first impressions and capture higher vote margins. Voters who possess limited information about a campaign often rely on quick, snap judgments based entirely on a candidate’s face to cast their ballot.

While the electoral advantages of beauty are extensively documented, economists have little data regarding whether an appealing physical appearance actually correlates with the actions of politicians after they assume office. Elections normally serve as a structural disciplinary mechanism. They keep leaders aligned with public interests through the constant underlying threat of being voted out of power. If attractive politicians recognize they possess a built-in electoral advantage, they might feel permanently insulated from future voter punishment.

Subject to this sense of security, attractive officials could hypothetically engage in behaviors that benefit themselves at the direct expense of their constituents. Such actions might include accumulating lucrative affiliations with special interest groups or routinely ignoring the localized majority opinion of the people they were elected to represent. This dynamic touches upon the principal-agent problem, a concept in political economy that describes the inherent conflict in priorities between a large group of citizens and the single representative authorized to act on their behalf.

University of Groningen economist Ahmed Skali and his colleagues wanted to test if this physical advantage shapes governance in reality. To answer this question, Skali and a team of researchers from academic institutions in Australia, Germany, and Switzerland designed an observational analysis. They focused their attention on the unique institutional framework of Swiss politics.

Switzerland features strict legal transparency rules and a robust system of direct democracy. This system allows social scientists to directly compare how an elected official votes alongside how the general public votes on the exact same legislative proposals. The setup provides a highly observable environment to study political fidelity without relying on vague campaign promises.

The researchers utilized a dataset featuring official photographs of 69 members of the Swiss Council of States who served between 2013 and 2014. These government portraits were highly standardized, featuring consistent camera distances, professional lighting, and identical focal lengths. To avoid statistical bias stemming from local name recognition or existing political prejudices, the scientists intentionally did not ask Swiss citizens to evaluate the images.

Instead, the team recruited 147 residents of Australia to rate the faces on a seven-point scale. The evaluators had no cultural ties to Swiss society and were not informed that the people in the photographs held elected office. The researchers then averaged these aesthetic scores, adjusting the numbers mathematically to account for individual differences in how harshly or leniently specific raters judged human beauty.

Next, the research team connected these physical attractiveness scores to public records detailing each politician’s professional conduct. First, they looked at the total number of interest group affiliations maintained by each member of parliament. Swiss law mandates the immediate disclosure of all corporate board memberships, advisory roles, and organized lobbying activities, making these professional ties highly visible to the voting public.

The researchers paid special attention to affiliations with sectional interest groups, which represent narrow industries like banking, energy production, or pharmaceuticals. These relationships are generally viewed as prime opportunities for rent-seeking behavior. In applied economics, rent-seeking involves attempting to increase personal wealth or influence without creating any new wealth for society, often through political manipulation, policy loopholes, or favorable corporate regulations.

The second measure of political behavior involved voter congruence, which evaluates how closely a specific leader aligns with the general public. Because Switzerland holds frequent national referenda, citizens vote on identically worded legal proposals as their elected representatives. This creates a rare environment where an official’s specific policy decisions can be matched precisely against the majority preference of their home district.

When looking at the final data, the research team found no evidence that physical beauty predicted political conduct. Attractive legislators were not more likely to accumulate ties to special interest groups. In fact, the data showed a slight trend toward better-looking politicians holding fewer of these corporate affiliations, though the results were not statistically significant.

Similarly, lawmakers with higher physical attractiveness scores did not deviate from the will of their constituents at higher rates than their less attractive peers. The researchers checked whether these behavioral patterns shifted depending on political party alignment. They found highly consistent results across left-leaning, right-leaning, and centrist lawmakers.

To guarantee that other variables were not obscuring the findings, the researchers adjusted their statistical models to account for factors like the politician’s age, gender, and education level. They also factored in the intensity of the political competition the lawmaker faced during their initial election cycle, such as their margin of victory at the ballot box. Even with these rigorous mathematical adjustments, physical attractiveness showed zero measurable association with how the politicians acted once comfortably in office.

The authors note that these results are closely tied to the highly transparent nature of the Swiss federal government. Because roll-call votes are publicly recorded and lobbying affiliations must be legally disclosed, the system leaves almost no room for hidden institutional behavior. In political environments featuring weaker oversight, an attractiveness advantage might still insulate manipulative politicians who wish to act poorly without facing the wrath of voters.

Additionally, the current analysis only utilized still photographs of faces. First impressions in the real world also encompass body language, physical fitness, and vocal tones, which could introduce completely different psychological variables. The study captures a snapshot in time rather than tracking how public perceptions of a politician evolve dynamically over a multi-year congressional term.

Future investigations could explore whether political parties strategically use their most attractive members for tasks beyond standard legislative voting duties. Good-looking officials might be deployed for heavy media appearances, given more frequent television interviews, or assigned to high-visibility internal committees. Researchers could also examine behavioral patterns in nations with higher levels of systemic corruption or less reliable mechanisms of democratic accountability.

Another avenue for future study involves asking under what conditions the beauty premium turns into a social penalty. In some professional environments, overwhelming physical attractiveness can trigger envy or intense frustration, leading to social friction. Identifying these unseen boundaries could help sociologists better understand how appearance shapes human hierarchies across a wide variety of political and social scenarios.

The study, “The beauty premium in politics? Perceptions and political behavior,” was authored by Ahmed Skali, Steve Bickley, Ho Fai Chan, David Stadelmann, Benno Torgler, and Stephen Whyte.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/good-looks-might-win-elections-but-they-do-not-dictate-policy/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BeautyPremiumInPolitics #PoliticianAppearance #ElectionPerceptions #PoliticalBehavior #RentSeeking #VoterCongruence #SwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #TransparencyInPolitics #PublicOfficialsAppearance

DATE: July 7, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG

** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------

TITLE: Do attractive politicians govern differently than their peers?

URL: https://www.psypost.org/good-looks-might-win-elections-but-they-do-not-dictate-policy/

It is widely documented that attractive political candidates often enjoy a distinct advantage at the ballot box, but new research suggests this aesthetic appeal does not change how they govern once elected. A study published in the European Journal of Political Economy found that better-looking politicians do not engage in more rent-seeking behavior or deviate more frequently from their voters’ preferences. The findings indicate that in a transparent political system, physical appearance offers no noticeable leeway for elected officials to act against the interests of their constituents.

Research across multiple disciplines demonstrates that physical attractiveness yields measurable real-world benefits, a phenomenon economists often call the beauty premium. Good-looking individuals frequently experience advantages in hiring scenarios, university admission rates, and starting salaries across various industries. This psychological bias, often referred to as the halo effect, leads people to unconsciously associate a pleasing physical appearance with unrelated positive traits, such as high competence, superior intelligence, and upstanding moral character.

This visual bias bleeds heavily into democratic elections. Past studies routinely demonstrate that visually appealing political candidates tend to secure more favorable first impressions and capture higher vote margins. Voters who possess limited information about a campaign often rely on quick, snap judgments based entirely on a candidate’s face to cast their ballot.

While the electoral advantages of beauty are extensively documented, economists have little data regarding whether an appealing physical appearance actually correlates with the actions of politicians after they assume office. Elections normally serve as a structural disciplinary mechanism. They keep leaders aligned with public interests through the constant underlying threat of being voted out of power. If attractive politicians recognize they possess a built-in electoral advantage, they might feel permanently insulated from future voter punishment.

Subject to this sense of security, attractive officials could hypothetically engage in behaviors that benefit themselves at the direct expense of their constituents. Such actions might include accumulating lucrative affiliations with special interest groups or routinely ignoring the localized majority opinion of the people they were elected to represent. This dynamic touches upon the principal-agent problem, a concept in political economy that describes the inherent conflict in priorities between a large group of citizens and the single representative authorized to act on their behalf.

University of Groningen economist Ahmed Skali and his colleagues wanted to test if this physical advantage shapes governance in reality. To answer this question, Skali and a team of researchers from academic institutions in Australia, Germany, and Switzerland designed an observational analysis. They focused their attention on the unique institutional framework of Swiss politics.

Switzerland features strict legal transparency rules and a robust system of direct democracy. This system allows social scientists to directly compare how an elected official votes alongside how the general public votes on the exact same legislative proposals. The setup provides a highly observable environment to study political fidelity without relying on vague campaign promises.

The researchers utilized a dataset featuring official photographs of 69 members of the Swiss Council of States who served between 2013 and 2014. These government portraits were highly standardized, featuring consistent camera distances, professional lighting, and identical focal lengths. To avoid statistical bias stemming from local name recognition or existing political prejudices, the scientists intentionally did not ask Swiss citizens to evaluate the images.

Instead, the team recruited 147 residents of Australia to rate the faces on a seven-point scale. The evaluators had no cultural ties to Swiss society and were not informed that the people in the photographs held elected office. The researchers then averaged these aesthetic scores, adjusting the numbers mathematically to account for individual differences in how harshly or leniently specific raters judged human beauty.

Next, the research team connected these physical attractiveness scores to public records detailing each politician’s professional conduct. First, they looked at the total number of interest group affiliations maintained by each member of parliament. Swiss law mandates the immediate disclosure of all corporate board memberships, advisory roles, and organized lobbying activities, making these professional ties highly visible to the voting public.

The researchers paid special attention to affiliations with sectional interest groups, which represent narrow industries like banking, energy production, or pharmaceuticals. These relationships are generally viewed as prime opportunities for rent-seeking behavior. In applied economics, rent-seeking involves attempting to increase personal wealth or influence without creating any new wealth for society, often through political manipulation, policy loopholes, or favorable corporate regulations.

The second measure of political behavior involved voter congruence, which evaluates how closely a specific leader aligns with the general public. Because Switzerland holds frequent national referenda, citizens vote on identically worded legal proposals as their elected representatives. This creates a rare environment where an official’s specific policy decisions can be matched precisely against the majority preference of their home district.

When looking at the final data, the research team found no evidence that physical beauty predicted political conduct. Attractive legislators were not more likely to accumulate ties to special interest groups. In fact, the data showed a slight trend toward better-looking politicians holding fewer of these corporate affiliations, though the results were not statistically significant.

Similarly, lawmakers with higher physical attractiveness scores did not deviate from the will of their constituents at higher rates than their less attractive peers. The researchers checked whether these behavioral patterns shifted depending on political party alignment. They found highly consistent results across left-leaning, right-leaning, and centrist lawmakers.

To guarantee that other variables were not obscuring the findings, the researchers adjusted their statistical models to account for factors like the politician’s age, gender, and education level. They also factored in the intensity of the political competition the lawmaker faced during their initial election cycle, such as their margin of victory at the ballot box. Even with these rigorous mathematical adjustments, physical attractiveness showed zero measurable association with how the politicians acted once comfortably in office.

The authors note that these results are closely tied to the highly transparent nature of the Swiss federal government. Because roll-call votes are publicly recorded and lobbying affiliations must be legally disclosed, the system leaves almost no room for hidden institutional behavior. In political environments featuring weaker oversight, an attractiveness advantage might still insulate manipulative politicians who wish to act poorly without facing the wrath of voters.

Additionally, the current analysis only utilized still photographs of faces. First impressions in the real world also encompass body language, physical fitness, and vocal tones, which could introduce completely different psychological variables. The study captures a snapshot in time rather than tracking how public perceptions of a politician evolve dynamically over a multi-year congressional term.

Future investigations could explore whether political parties strategically use their most attractive members for tasks beyond standard legislative voting duties. Good-looking officials might be deployed for heavy media appearances, given more frequent television interviews, or assigned to high-visibility internal committees. Researchers could also examine behavioral patterns in nations with higher levels of systemic corruption or less reliable mechanisms of democratic accountability.

Another avenue for future study involves asking under what conditions the beauty premium turns into a social penalty. In some professional environments, overwhelming physical attractiveness can trigger envy or intense frustration, leading to social friction. Identifying these unseen boundaries could help sociologists better understand how appearance shapes human hierarchies across a wide variety of political and social scenarios.

The study, “The beauty premium in politics? Perceptions and political behavior,” was authored by Ahmed Skali, Steve Bickley, Ho Fai Chan, David Stadelmann, Benno Torgler, and Stephen Whyte.

URL: https://www.psypost.org/good-looks-might-win-elections-but-they-do-not-dictate-policy/

-------------------------------------------------

Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org

Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot

-------------------------------------------------

#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #BeautyPremiumInPolitics #PoliticianAppearance #ElectionPerceptions #PoliticalBehavior #RentSeeking #VoterCongruence #SwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #TransparencyInPolitics #PublicOfficialsAppearance

https://www.walknews.com/1335573/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeNews #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #Multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #ヨーロッパニュース #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.walknews.com/1335573/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeNews #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #Multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #ヨーロッパニュース #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.walknews.com/1335573/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeNews #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #Multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #ヨーロッパニュース #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.walknews.com/1335573/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeNews #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #Multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #ヨーロッパニュース #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.wacoca.com/news/2875778/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #Article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.wacoca.com/news/2875778/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #Article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.wacoca.com/news/2875778/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #Article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.wacoca.com/news/2875778/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #Article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #欧州 #欧州連合

https://www.wacoca.com/news/2875778/ EUとの二国間協定批准に「州の過半数」は必要か？スイスで議論 – SWI swissinfo.ch #Article #BeatForeignAffairs #BeatSwissDemocracy #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #EU #Europe #EuropeanUnion #ForeignAffairs #multi #ProductionTypeAdaptation #ヨーロッパ #欧州 #欧州連合

Professional Politics Is Intrinsically Corrupt, Go For Direct Democracy Instead

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly why there are professional politicians: so that they, and individuals gravitating around them,  can get absolutely corrupt (I have seen the process at the closest distance; little difference with Nero’s court). 

What we are submitted to is not true democracy, but OLIGARCHIC REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY (ORD): power (kratia) of the people (demos) from the rule (archeon) of the few (oligos).

In a real democracy -that is, in a direct democracy- there are no professional politicians (because when there are, they are more powerful than We The People). In a real democracy, politics belongs to We The People: We The People rule, not just a few individuals.

There are ways to ensure this, including by distributing offices by drawing lots (“SORTITION”). If anybody can suddenly become the most important decision maker, for, say, a year, and subject to prosecution after leaving office, it will be impossible for an elite of power to become encrusted into a volume of corrupt barnacles so thick that the ship of state completely disappears in it… It will also motivate even janitors and farmers to know what is going on.

It is known how to do without professional politicians, because several Greek states and the Roman Republic, long succeeded to do so when they were as democratic as possible.

It is a bit intricate, as many types of assemblies and offices have to institute various checks and balances…. Including some drawn by lots … so everybody had to get ready to become a top politician, at least for a while. Pericles, according to Thucydides, characterized the Athenians as politically literate:

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all

Many of Democracy’s contemporaries whose work is part of historiography were highly critical of Democracy, but that is likely coming from more than a millennium of dictatorial filtering. Plato and Aristotle were intimate, in love and in business, with actual kings, tyrants and autocratic generals (such as Antipater for Aristotle; Antipater went to war against Athenian democracy, defeated it, established it as a plutocracy and was the executor of Aristotle’s testament in more ways than one…) As Democracy was followed by two millennia of dictatorship, there was a self-selective effect: a monk from the European Middle Ages would reproduce a manuscript friendly to the idea of having a local prince instead of reproducing a book calling people such as the local prince “tyrants”…. Which they were. Making the local tyrant unhappy could often be only alleviated by long tortures of the miscreant…

One valid critique from Socrates is that Democracy sometimes put ignorant individuals in power where experts were needed. This can be corrected with guilds and orders, MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS when one reaches positions of authority through merit and experience. The Middle Ages built such a system over more than a millennia, ending with orders for doctors, lawyers, engineers, masons, etc.

Politics is too important to be left to politicians who are adept at hiding their most important decisions, because that is where the real power lies. 

Here is a crucial, even fatal, example of the present lack of true democracy: 

NOBODY DEBATES INTELLIGENTLY THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE:

The official nuclear strategy of France for example is completely insane and nonsensical (and the unexpressed US nuclear strategy, or that of NATO, are similar, and just as inappropriate… Differently from the French, though, they have been smart enough to not talk of what they do not understand…). I will write a specific essay on it. I am not per se opposed to nukes (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however atrocious, were better than any potential alternative, as it turned out). What I am opposed to is the specifics of the French nuclear doctrine, as both extremely ineffective and hyper dangerous (a bit like the Chernobyl reactor).

However, this, the fate of humanity, no less, is not debated anywhere except probably in the Kremlin. As it is, individuals without knowledge of even physics, sitting in their hidden recesses like cockroaches, agitating their homicidal antennas, have elaborated secret doctrine to end humanity. And they present their conclusion with gravitas, heavily applauded by the other cockroaches they paid and honored, and who pretend to know stuff as they jet around the world.

Instead the fate of the universe ought to be the object of a cogent, loud and fierce public debate (with the aim to reduce the insanity).

***

ISEGORIA And PARHEISIA, Pillars Of Democracy, Can Be Expanded To Billions Of People, Thanks To The Internet:

Direct democracy will prevent, as much as possible, the emergence of informal elites (e.g., charismatic orators, wealthy influencers) to manipulate public opinion better than any alternative. Isonomia and Parheisia, already perceived in antiquity as pillars of democracy enabling really free speech by all to all, should be enforced as much as possible. That super thinkers would have more influence is to be hoped for, and no sin, just the opposite. 

AI assemblies, deliberating from various biases or viewpoints, to be used as advisers will help further.

If one of the woke AI we have today had been able to advise the Athenians, they would not have genocidized the city-island-state of Milo, and they would not have attacked and invaded Syracuse. Nor would they have left their entire fleet on a beach (that’s how they lost the last battle; Alcibiades had told them not to, and why, but he was no AI and they ignored him… once again and for the last time… 

***

With the Internet, it should be easier to institute a MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC system than in antiquity, though… By TWEAKING the existing democracies (the referendum system already exists on a large scale in California; Brexit was a referendum, true, and a disastrous one, but it was applied in a country not used to taking decisions by itself, without any remedy, and when PM Cameron decided it, he thought he would win… Thus it originated as an authoritative trick, not a genuine consultation.)

Consulting with We The People could be done lightly, as in Switzerland: any “votation” of We The People has to go through the conventional Oligarchic Democratic Process (ODP), with all its checks and balances, to become law… Working through ODP avoids the notorious hysteria of Athenian democracy… By the way, Rome had the opposite problem: so many checks and balances that reforms, even when voted,  could not be effected, thanks to the Optimates in the Senate… Julius Caesar had understood this perfectly and rammed necessary reforms… But he should have remembered that this was an unforgivable crime… 

***

Let’s go back to the question of Mob Rule, the old objection made against democracy as early as Plato. The Melian Dialogue shows its ruthlessness:”the strong do what they can, the weak do what they must”. It finished in complete idiocy. Athenian democracy executed generals not just after a failed battle. After a crucial and belated victory on the Persian financed) Spartan fleet, Athenian democracy executed the nine victorious admirals. The atrocious defeat of Athenian civilization with about half of the population killed promptly followed a s aresult… How to prevent hysteria or tyranny of the majority?  Let me repeat: I propose an EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION: use a combination of Direct Democracy, debate, helped by AI assemblies (AI will be there, make it official and transparent…) Use them to IMPROVE the present Representative Oligarchic Democracy… By progressively forcing us to consult with intelligence.

***

Athens had three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6,000), the council of 500 (boule), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, on some occasions up to 6,000). 

A citizen could sit twice, non consecutively, in the Boule, for a year in his lifetime. 

***

The traditional objection to augmenting Direct Democracy is to point out that Athens had at most 80,000 voters. Yes. But it was not easy: major laws required 6000 votes, and farmers had to travel more than a day to come and vote (hungry Athens was surrounded by the crucial arable land of Attica, full of voting Athenian farmers). After a while, it was found necessary to pay voters to travel, come and reach a quorum. With modern communications, people can just talk to their phone.

On top of this, the Roman Republic had several million voters, and could have survived, had the Optimates not been so stubborn and stupid, generation after generation, or had they not assassinated Caesar (long story). As it was, after the utterly chaotic civil war which followed Caesar’s assassination, a military dictatorship was established and Augustus made himself Tribune for life.   

The Roman Republic was three centuries old when it started to fall to a plutocratic exponentiation (very long story). It could have been avoided with much more sagacity after the defeat of Carthage and its Hellenistic Allies in the Second Punic war (surviving in good intelligence and trade with a subordinated Carthage would have been part of it).

As it was, it was one war after another. Distant wars made the generals and the traders accommodating them, immensely wealthy; tax avoidance schemes, globalization, etc. followed… In the chaos, the ROMAN ABSOLUTE WEALTH LIMIT became less than a memory (I have computed it to be around 22 millions in 2022 $). When Tiberius Gracchus tried to reestablish it, the Optimates engaged in a process which broke the Republic in the 100 years which led to Caesar’s assassination. 

***

Both Athenian and Roman Direct Democracies were mostly defeated and ruined by plutocrats (even in the Peloponnesian War, the main shock to Athens, the Persian plutocratic superpower played the crucial role, by paying for everything, using Sparta as a telerobotic terminator)

***

Rome’s Direct Democracy had similar limitations for its various institutions (Consul for one year, and could not be re-elected for a decade). However in emergencies, Rome could elect a dictator with the powers of an absolute king. Cincinatus was elected to the highest offices several times, including dictator twenty years apart, because Rome was being invaded by foreign armies… But still he was a farmer…. The first time, having defeated the enemy in a spectacular battle thanks to a massive mobilization and innovative methods which involved all of Rome making hundreds of thousands of stakes in a couple of days. Cincinatus returned to his plow within two weeks…

Democracy was not invented just because it is the natural state of human beings as created by millions of years of evolution. The interest civilization has in democracy is that democracy makes civilization more intelligent. This is why greater democracy tends to win wars.

Want democracy?

Want more intelligence in saving civilization from destruction?

Proscribe professional politicians!

Patrice Ayme

Note: The thoroughly corrupt present US political system seems very far from Direct Democracy. Systems in other oligarchic representative democracies are not as bad, but it is still the same general problem.  Timid steps have been taken, such as term limits. The US went overboard with an amendment preventing more than two presidential terms. France forbids two consecutive terms, and that is wiser: the only reason California governor Newson, a Getty creature, has a chance to run for president is that Obama can’t be a candidate again… It is likely that Obama would become a much better president if he was reelected. California’s governor Brown was better in his second 8 year passage. 

In any case the California mandatory referendums (1856 CE) and initiative system (1911 CE) has worked very well, and intensely, for more than a century, and is compatible with ORD … And the first start to do for other nation-states would be to imitate it if they want to augment the Democratic Index. 

That little light is a giant harvester working the fields. Enough fields to feed the two million people who call the area home, surrounded by mountains centered around Western Europe’s largest lake. The Swiss and the French have been careful to maintain self-sufficiency in food production… Which would be necessary if world trade collapsed as it did when the Roman state disnitegrated. By the way, Caesar defended Geneva successfally against the Helvetiae…

Professional Politics Is Intrinsically Corrupt, Go For Direct Democracy Instead

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly why there are professional politicians: so that they, and individuals gravitating around them,  can get absolutely corrupt (I have seen the process at the closest distance; little difference with Nero’s court). 

What we are submitted to is not true democracy, but OLIGARCHIC REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY (ORD): power (kratia) of the people (demos) from the rule (archeon) of the few (oligos).

In a real democracy -that is, in a direct democracy- there are no professional politicians (because when there are, they are more powerful than We The People). In a real democracy, politics belongs to We The People: We The People rule, not just a few individuals.

There are ways to ensure this, including by distributing offices by drawing lots (“SORTITION”). If anybody can suddenly become the most important decision maker, for, say, a year, and subject to prosecution after leaving office, it will be impossible for an elite of power to become encrusted into a volume of corrupt barnacles so thick that the ship of state completely disappears in it… It will also motivate even janitors and farmers to know what is going on.

It is known how to do without professional politicians, because several Greek states and the Roman Republic, long succeeded to do so when they were as democratic as possible.

It is a bit intricate, as many types of assemblies and offices have to institute various checks and balances…. Including some drawn by lots … so everybody had to get ready to become a top politician, at least for a while. Pericles, according to Thucydides, characterized the Athenians as politically literate:

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all

Many of Democracy’s contemporaries whose work is part of historiography were highly critical of Democracy, but that is likely coming from more than a millennium of dictatorial filtering. Plato and Aristotle were intimate, in love and in business, with actual kings, tyrants and autocratic generals (such as Antipater for Aristotle; Antipater went to war against Athenian democracy, defeated it, established it as a plutocracy and was the executor of Aristotle’s testament in more ways than one…) As Democracy was followed by two millennia of dictatorship, there was a self-selective effect: a monk from the European Middle Ages would reproduce a manuscript friendly to the idea of having a local prince instead of reproducing a book calling people such as the local prince “tyrants”…. Which they were. Making the local tyrant unhappy could often be only alleviated by long tortures of the miscreant…

One valid critique from Socrates is that Democracy sometimes put ignorant individuals in power where experts were needed. This can be corrected with guilds and orders, MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS when one reaches positions of authority through merit and experience. The Middle Ages built such a system over more than a millennia, ending with orders for doctors, lawyers, engineers, masons, etc.

Politics is too important to be left to politicians who are adept at hiding their most important decisions, because that is where the real power lies. 

Here is a crucial, even fatal, example of the present lack of true democracy: 

NOBODY DEBATES INTELLIGENTLY THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE:

The official nuclear strategy of France for example is completely insane and nonsensical (and the unexpressed US nuclear strategy, or that of NATO, are similar, and just as inappropriate… Differently from the French, though, they have been smart enough to not talk of what they do not understand…). I will write a specific essay on it. I am not per se opposed to nukes (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however atrocious, were better than any potential alternative, as it turned out). What I am opposed to is the specifics of the French nuclear doctrine, as both extremely ineffective and hyper dangerous (a bit like the Chernobyl reactor).

However, this, the fate of humanity, no less, is not debated anywhere except probably in the Kremlin. As it is, individuals without knowledge of even physics, sitting in their hidden recesses like cockroaches, agitating their homicidal antennas, have elaborated secret doctrine to end humanity. And they present their conclusion with gravitas, heavily applauded by the other cockroaches they paid and honored, and who pretend to know stuff as they jet around the world.

Instead the fate of the universe ought to be the object of a cogent, loud and fierce public debate (with the aim to reduce the insanity).

***

ISEGORIA And PARHEISIA, Pillars Of Democracy, Can Be Expanded To Billions Of People, Thanks To The Internet:

Direct democracy will prevent, as much as possible, the emergence of informal elites (e.g., charismatic orators, wealthy influencers) to manipulate public opinion better than any alternative. Isonomia and Parheisia, already perceived in antiquity as pillars of democracy enabling really free speech by all to all, should be enforced as much as possible. That super thinkers would have more influence is to be hoped for, and no sin, just the opposite. 

AI assemblies, deliberating from various biases or viewpoints, to be used as advisers will help further.

If one of the woke AI we have today had been able to advise the Athenians, they would not have genocidized the city-island-state of Milo, and they would not have attacked and invaded Syracuse. Nor would they have left their entire fleet on a beach (that’s how they lost the last battle; Alcibiades had told them not to, and why, but he was no AI and they ignored him… once again and for the last time… 

***

With the Internet, it should be easier to institute a MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC system than in antiquity, though… By TWEAKING the existing democracies (the referendum system already exists on a large scale in California; Brexit was a referendum, true, and a disastrous one, but it was applied in a country not used to taking decisions by itself, without any remedy, and when PM Cameron decided it, he thought he would win… Thus it originated as an authoritative trick, not a genuine consultation.)

Consulting with We The People could be done lightly, as in Switzerland: any “votation” of We The People has to go through the conventional Oligarchic Democratic Process (ODP), with all its checks and balances, to become law… Working through ODP avoids the notorious hysteria of Athenian democracy… By the way, Rome had the opposite problem: so many checks and balances that reforms, even when voted,  could not be effected, thanks to the Optimates in the Senate… Julius Caesar had understood this perfectly and rammed necessary reforms… But he should have remembered that this was an unforgivable crime… 

***

Let’s go back to the question of Mob Rule, the old objection made against democracy as early as Plato. The Melian Dialogue shows its ruthlessness:”the strong do what they can, the weak do what they must”. It finished in complete idiocy. Athenian democracy executed generals not just after a failed battle. After a crucial and belated victory on the Persian financed) Spartan fleet, Athenian democracy executed the nine victorious admirals. The atrocious defeat of Athenian civilization with about half of the population killed promptly followed a s aresult… How to prevent hysteria or tyranny of the majority?  Let me repeat: I propose an EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION: use a combination of Direct Democracy, debate, helped by AI assemblies (AI will be there, make it official and transparent…) Use them to IMPROVE the present Representative Oligarchic Democracy… By progressively forcing us to consult with intelligence.

***

Athens had three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6,000), the council of 500 (boule), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, on some occasions up to 6,000). 

A citizen could sit twice, non consecutively, in the Boule, for a year in his lifetime. 

***

The traditional objection to augmenting Direct Democracy is to point out that Athens had at most 80,000 voters. Yes. But it was not easy: major laws required 6000 votes, and farmers had to travel more than a day to come and vote (hungry Athens was surrounded by the crucial arable land of Attica, full of voting Athenian farmers). After a while, it was found necessary to pay voters to travel, come and reach a quorum. With modern communications, people can just talk to their phone.

On top of this, the Roman Republic had several million voters, and could have survived, had the Optimates not been so stubborn and stupid, generation after generation, or had they not assassinated Caesar (long story). As it was, after the utterly chaotic civil war which followed Caesar’s assassination, a military dictatorship was established and Augustus made himself Tribune for life.   

The Roman Republic was three centuries old when it started to fall to a plutocratic exponentiation (very long story). It could have been avoided with much more sagacity after the defeat of Carthage and its Hellenistic Allies in the Second Punic war (surviving in good intelligence and trade with a subordinated Carthage would have been part of it).

As it was, it was one war after another. Distant wars made the generals and the traders accommodating them, immensely wealthy; tax avoidance schemes, globalization, etc. followed… In the chaos, the ROMAN ABSOLUTE WEALTH LIMIT became less than a memory (I have computed it to be around 22 millions in 2022 $). When Tiberius Gracchus tried to reestablish it, the Optimates engaged in a process which broke the Republic in the 100 years which led to Caesar’s assassination. 

***

Both Athenian and Roman Direct Democracies were mostly defeated and ruined by plutocrats (even in the Peloponnesian War, the main shock to Athens, the Persian plutocratic superpower played the crucial role, by paying for everything, using Sparta as a telerobotic terminator)

***

Rome’s Direct Democracy had similar limitations for its various institutions (Consul for one year, and could not be re-elected for a decade). However in emergencies, Rome could elect a dictator with the powers of an absolute king. Cincinatus was elected to the highest offices several times, including dictator twenty years apart, because Rome was being invaded by foreign armies… But still he was a farmer…. The first time, having defeated the enemy in a spectacular battle thanks to a massive mobilization and innovative methods which involved all of Rome making hundreds of thousands of stakes in a couple of days. Cincinatus returned to his plow within two weeks…

Democracy was not invented just because it is the natural state of human beings as created by millions of years of evolution. The interest civilization has in democracy is that democracy makes civilization more intelligent. This is why greater democracy tends to win wars.

Want democracy?

Want more intelligence in saving civilization from destruction?

Proscribe professional politicians!

Patrice Ayme

Note: The thoroughly corrupt present US political system seems very far from Direct Democracy. Systems in other oligarchic representative democracies are not as bad, but it is still the same general problem.  Timid steps have been taken, such as term limits. The US went overboard with an amendment preventing more than two presidential terms. France forbids two consecutive terms, and that is wiser: the only reason California governor Newson, a Getty creature, has a chance to run for president is that Obama can’t be a candidate again… It is likely that Obama would become a much better president if he was reelected. California’s governor Brown was better in his second 8 year passage. 

In any case the California mandatory referendums (1856 CE) and initiative system (1911 CE) has worked very well, and intensely, for more than a century, and is compatible with ORD … And the first start to do for other nation-states would be to imitate it if they want to augment the Democratic Index. 

That little light is a giant harvester working the fields. Enough fields to feed the two million people who call the area home, surrounded by mountains centered around Western Europe’s largest lake. The Swiss and the French have been careful to maintain self-sufficiency in food production… Which would be necessary if world trade collapsed as it did when the Roman state disnitegrated. By the way, Caesar defended Geneva successfally against the Helvetiae…

Professional Politics Is Intrinsically Corrupt, Go For Direct Democracy Instead

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly why there are professional politicians: so that they, and individuals gravitating around them,  can get absolutely corrupt (I have seen the process at the closest distance; little difference with Nero’s court). 

What we are submitted to is not true democracy, but OLIGARCHIC REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY (ORD): power (kratia) of the people (demos) from the rule (archeon) of the few (oligos).

In a real democracy -that is, in a direct democracy- there are no professional politicians (because when there are, they are more powerful than We The People). In a real democracy, politics belongs to We The People: We The People rule, not just a few individuals.

There are ways to ensure this, including by distributing offices by drawing lots (“SORTITION”). If anybody can suddenly become the most important decision maker, for, say, a year, and subject to prosecution after leaving office, it will be impossible for an elite of power to become encrusted into a volume of corrupt barnacles so thick that the ship of state completely disappears in it… It will also motivate even janitors and farmers to know what is going on.

It is known how to do without professional politicians, because several Greek states and the Roman Republic, long succeeded to do so when they were as democratic as possible.

It is a bit intricate, as many types of assemblies and offices have to institute various checks and balances…. Including some drawn by lots … so everybody had to get ready to become a top politician, at least for a while. Pericles, according to Thucydides, characterized the Athenians as politically literate:

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all

Many of Democracy’s contemporaries whose work is part of historiography were highly critical of Democracy, but that is likely coming from more than a millennium of dictatorial filtering. Plato and Aristotle were intimate, in love and in business, with actual kings, tyrants and autocratic generals (such as Antipater for Aristotle; Antipater went to war against Athenian democracy, defeated it, established it as a plutocracy and was the executor of Aristotle’s testament in more ways than one…) As Democracy was followed by two millennia of dictatorship, there was a self-selective effect: a monk from the European Middle Ages would reproduce a manuscript friendly to the idea of having a local prince instead of reproducing a book calling people such as the local prince “tyrants”…. Which they were. Making the local tyrant unhappy could often be only alleviated by long tortures of the miscreant…

One valid critique from Socrates is that Democracy sometimes put ignorant individuals in power where experts were needed. This can be corrected with guilds and orders, MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS when one reaches positions of authority through merit and experience. The Middle Ages built such a system over more than a millennia, ending with orders for doctors, lawyers, engineers, masons, etc.

Politics is too important to be left to politicians who are adept at hiding their most important decisions, because that is where the real power lies. 

Here is a crucial, even fatal, example of the present lack of true democracy: 

NOBODY DEBATES INTELLIGENTLY THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE:

The official nuclear strategy of France for example is completely insane and nonsensical (and the unexpressed US nuclear strategy, or that of NATO, are similar, and just as inappropriate… Differently from the French, though, they have been smart enough to not talk of what they do not understand…). I will write a specific essay on it. I am not per se opposed to nukes (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however atrocious, were better than any potential alternative, as it turned out). What I am opposed to is the specifics of the French nuclear doctrine, as both extremely ineffective and hyper dangerous (a bit like the Chernobyl reactor).

However, this, the fate of humanity, no less, is not debated anywhere except probably in the Kremlin. As it is, individuals without knowledge of even physics, sitting in their hidden recesses like cockroaches, agitating their homicidal antennas, have elaborated secret doctrine to end humanity. And they present their conclusion with gravitas, heavily applauded by the other cockroaches they paid and honored, and who pretend to know stuff as they jet around the world.

Instead the fate of the universe ought to be the object of a cogent, loud and fierce public debate (with the aim to reduce the insanity).

***

ISEGORIA And PARHEISIA, Pillars Of Democracy, Can Be Expanded To Billions Of People, Thanks To The Internet:

Direct democracy will prevent, as much as possible, the emergence of informal elites (e.g., charismatic orators, wealthy influencers) to manipulate public opinion better than any alternative. Isonomia and Parheisia, already perceived in antiquity as pillars of democracy enabling really free speech by all to all, should be enforced as much as possible. That super thinkers would have more influence is to be hoped for, and no sin, just the opposite. 

AI assemblies, deliberating from various biases or viewpoints, to be used as advisers will help further.

If one of the woke AI we have today had been able to advise the Athenians, they would not have genocidized the city-island-state of Milo, and they would not have attacked and invaded Syracuse. Nor would they have left their entire fleet on a beach (that’s how they lost the last battle; Alcibiades had told them not to, and why, but he was no AI and they ignored him… once again and for the last time… 

***

With the Internet, it should be easier to institute a MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC system than in antiquity, though… By TWEAKING the existing democracies (the referendum system already exists on a large scale in California; Brexit was a referendum, true, and a disastrous one, but it was applied in a country not used to taking decisions by itself, without any remedy, and when PM Cameron decided it, he thought he would win… Thus it originated as an authoritative trick, not a genuine consultation.)

Consulting with We The People could be done lightly, as in Switzerland: any “votation” of We The People has to go through the conventional Oligarchic Democratic Process (ODP), with all its checks and balances, to become law… Working through ODP avoids the notorious hysteria of Athenian democracy… By the way, Rome had the opposite problem: so many checks and balances that reforms, even when voted,  could not be effected, thanks to the Optimates in the Senate… Julius Caesar had understood this perfectly and rammed necessary reforms… But he should have remembered that this was an unforgivable crime… 

***

Let’s go back to the question of Mob Rule, the old objection made against democracy as early as Plato. The Melian Dialogue shows its ruthlessness:”the strong do what they can, the weak do what they must”. It finished in complete idiocy. Athenian democracy executed generals not just after a failed battle. After a crucial and belated victory on the Persian financed) Spartan fleet, Athenian democracy executed the nine victorious admirals. The atrocious defeat of Athenian civilization with about half of the population killed promptly followed a s aresult… How to prevent hysteria or tyranny of the majority?  Let me repeat: I propose an EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION: use a combination of Direct Democracy, debate, helped by AI assemblies (AI will be there, make it official and transparent…) Use them to IMPROVE the present Representative Oligarchic Democracy… By progressively forcing us to consult with intelligence.

***

Athens had three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6,000), the council of 500 (boule), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, on some occasions up to 6,000). 

A citizen could sit twice, non consecutively, in the Boule, for a year in his lifetime. 

***

The traditional objection to augmenting Direct Democracy is to point out that Athens had at most 80,000 voters. Yes. But it was not easy: major laws required 6000 votes, and farmers had to travel more than a day to come and vote (hungry Athens was surrounded by the crucial arable land of Attica, full of voting Athenian farmers). After a while, it was found necessary to pay voters to travel, come and reach a quorum. With modern communications, people can just talk to their phone.

On top of this, the Roman Republic had several million voters, and could have survived, had the Optimates not been so stubborn and stupid, generation after generation, or had they not assassinated Caesar (long story). As it was, after the utterly chaotic civil war which followed Caesar’s assassination, a military dictatorship was established and Augustus made himself Tribune for life.   

The Roman Republic was three centuries old when it started to fall to a plutocratic exponentiation (very long story). It could have been avoided with much more sagacity after the defeat of Carthage and its Hellenistic Allies in the Second Punic war (surviving in good intelligence and trade with a subordinated Carthage would have been part of it).

As it was, it was one war after another. Distant wars made the generals and the traders accommodating them, immensely wealthy; tax avoidance schemes, globalization, etc. followed… In the chaos, the ROMAN ABSOLUTE WEALTH LIMIT became less than a memory (I have computed it to be around 22 millions in 2022 $). When Tiberius Gracchus tried to reestablish it, the Optimates engaged in a process which broke the Republic in the 100 years which led to Caesar’s assassination. 

***

Both Athenian and Roman Direct Democracies were mostly defeated and ruined by plutocrats (even in the Peloponnesian War, the main shock to Athens, the Persian plutocratic superpower played the crucial role, by paying for everything, using Sparta as a telerobotic terminator)

***

Rome’s Direct Democracy had similar limitations for its various institutions (Consul for one year, and could not be re-elected for a decade). However in emergencies, Rome could elect a dictator with the powers of an absolute king. Cincinatus was elected to the highest offices several times, including dictator twenty years apart, because Rome was being invaded by foreign armies… But still he was a farmer…. The first time, having defeated the enemy in a spectacular battle thanks to a massive mobilization and innovative methods which involved all of Rome making hundreds of thousands of stakes in a couple of days. Cincinatus returned to his plow within two weeks…

Democracy was not invented just because it is the natural state of human beings as created by millions of years of evolution. The interest civilization has in democracy is that democracy makes civilization more intelligent. This is why greater democracy tends to win wars.

Want democracy?

Want more intelligence in saving civilization from destruction?

Proscribe professional politicians!

Patrice Ayme

Note: The thoroughly corrupt present US political system seems very far from Direct Democracy. Systems in other oligarchic representative democracies are not as bad, but it is still the same general problem.  Timid steps have been taken, such as term limits. The US went overboard with an amendment preventing more than two presidential terms. France forbids two consecutive terms, and that is wiser: the only reason California governor Newson, a Getty creature, has a chance to run for president is that Obama can’t be a candidate again… It is likely that Obama would become a much better president if he was reelected. California’s governor Brown was better in his second 8 year passage. 

In any case the California mandatory referendums (1856 CE) and initiative system (1911 CE) has worked very well, and intensely, for more than a century, and is compatible with ORD … And the first start to do for other nation-states would be to imitate it if they want to augment the Democratic Index. 

That little light is a giant harvester working the fields. Enough fields to feed the two million people who call the area home, surrounded by mountains centered around Western Europe’s largest lake. The Swiss and the French have been careful to maintain self-sufficiency in food production… Which would be necessary if world trade collapsed as it did when the Roman state disnitegrated. By the way, Caesar defended Geneva successfally against the Helvetiae…

Professional Politics Is Intrinsically Corrupt, Go For Direct Democracy Instead

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly why there are professional politicians: so that they, and individuals gravitating around them,  can get absolutely corrupt (I have seen the process at the closest distance; little difference with Nero’s court). 

What we are submitted to is not true democracy, but OLIGARCHIC REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY (ORD): power (kratia) of the people (demos) from the rule (archeon) of the few (oligos).

In a real democracy -that is, in a direct democracy- there are no professional politicians (because when there are, they are more powerful than We The People). In a real democracy, politics belongs to We The People: We The People rule, not just a few individuals.

There are ways to ensure this, including by distributing offices by drawing lots (“SORTITION”). If anybody can suddenly become the most important decision maker, for, say, a year, and subject to prosecution after leaving office, it will be impossible for an elite of power to become encrusted into a volume of corrupt barnacles so thick that the ship of state completely disappears in it… It will also motivate even janitors and farmers to know what is going on.

It is known how to do without professional politicians, because several Greek states and the Roman Republic, long succeeded to do so when they were as democratic as possible.

It is a bit intricate, as many types of assemblies and offices have to institute various checks and balances…. Including some drawn by lots … so everybody had to get ready to become a top politician, at least for a while. Pericles, according to Thucydides, characterized the Athenians as politically literate:

We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all

Many of Democracy’s contemporaries whose work is part of historiography were highly critical of Democracy, but that is likely coming from more than a millennium of dictatorial filtering. Plato and Aristotle were intimate, in love and in business, with actual kings, tyrants and autocratic generals (such as Antipater for Aristotle; Antipater went to war against Athenian democracy, defeated it, established it as a plutocracy and was the executor of Aristotle’s testament in more ways than one…) As Democracy was followed by two millennia of dictatorship, there was a self-selective effect: a monk from the European Middle Ages would reproduce a manuscript friendly to the idea of having a local prince instead of reproducing a book calling people such as the local prince “tyrants”…. Which they were. Making the local tyrant unhappy could often be only alleviated by long tortures of the miscreant…

One valid critique from Socrates is that Democracy sometimes put ignorant individuals in power where experts were needed. This can be corrected with guilds and orders, MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS when one reaches positions of authority through merit and experience. The Middle Ages built such a system over more than a millennia, ending with orders for doctors, lawyers, engineers, masons, etc.

Politics is too important to be left to politicians who are adept at hiding their most important decisions, because that is where the real power lies. 

Here is a crucial, even fatal, example of the present lack of true democracy: 

NOBODY DEBATES INTELLIGENTLY THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE:

The official nuclear strategy of France for example is completely insane and nonsensical (and the unexpressed US nuclear strategy, or that of NATO, are similar, and just as inappropriate… Differently from the French, though, they have been smart enough to not talk of what they do not understand…). I will write a specific essay on it. I am not per se opposed to nukes (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however atrocious, were better than any potential alternative, as it turned out). What I am opposed to is the specifics of the French nuclear doctrine, as both extremely ineffective and hyper dangerous (a bit like the Chernobyl reactor).

However, this, the fate of humanity, no less, is not debated anywhere except probably in the Kremlin. As it is, individuals without knowledge of even physics, sitting in their hidden recesses like cockroaches, agitating their homicidal antennas, have elaborated secret doctrine to end humanity. And they present their conclusion with gravitas, heavily applauded by the other cockroaches they paid and honored, and who pretend to know stuff as they jet around the world.

Instead the fate of the universe ought to be the object of a cogent, loud and fierce public debate (with the aim to reduce the insanity).

***

ISEGORIA And PARHEISIA, Pillars Of Democracy, Can Be Expanded To Billions Of People, Thanks To The Internet:

Direct democracy will prevent, as much as possible, the emergence of informal elites (e.g., charismatic orators, wealthy influencers) to manipulate public opinion better than any alternative. Isonomia and Parheisia, already perceived in antiquity as pillars of democracy enabling really free speech by all to all, should be enforced as much as possible. That super thinkers would have more influence is to be hoped for, and no sin, just the opposite. 

AI assemblies, deliberating from various biases or viewpoints, to be used as advisers will help further.

If one of the woke AI we have today had been able to advise the Athenians, they would not have genocidized the city-island-state of Milo, and they would not have attacked and invaded Syracuse. Nor would they have left their entire fleet on a beach (that’s how they lost the last battle; Alcibiades had told them not to, and why, but he was no AI and they ignored him… once again and for the last time… 

***

With the Internet, it should be easier to institute a MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC system than in antiquity, though… By TWEAKING the existing democracies (the referendum system already exists on a large scale in California; Brexit was a referendum, true, and a disastrous one, but it was applied in a country not used to taking decisions by itself, without any remedy, and when PM Cameron decided it, he thought he would win… Thus it originated as an authoritative trick, not a genuine consultation.)

Consulting with We The People could be done lightly, as in Switzerland: any “votation” of We The People has to go through the conventional Oligarchic Democratic Process (ODP), with all its checks and balances, to become law… Working through ODP avoids the notorious hysteria of Athenian democracy… By the way, Rome had the opposite problem: so many checks and balances that reforms, even when voted,  could not be effected, thanks to the Optimates in the Senate… Julius Caesar had understood this perfectly and rammed necessary reforms… But he should have remembered that this was an unforgivable crime… 

***

Let’s go back to the question of Mob Rule, the old objection made against democracy as early as Plato. The Melian Dialogue shows its ruthlessness:”the strong do what they can, the weak do what they must”. It finished in complete idiocy. Athenian democracy executed generals not just after a failed battle. After a crucial and belated victory on the Persian financed) Spartan fleet, Athenian democracy executed the nine victorious admirals. The atrocious defeat of Athenian civilization with about half of the population killed promptly followed a s aresult… How to prevent hysteria or tyranny of the majority?  Let me repeat: I propose an EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION: use a combination of Direct Democracy, debate, helped by AI assemblies (AI will be there, make it official and transparent…) Use them to IMPROVE the present Representative Oligarchic Democracy… By progressively forcing us to consult with intelligence.

***

Athens had three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6,000), the council of 500 (boule), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, on some occasions up to 6,000). 

A citizen could sit twice, non consecutively, in the Boule, for a year in his lifetime. 

***

The traditional objection to augmenting Direct Democracy is to point out that Athens had at most 80,000 voters. Yes. But it was not easy: major laws required 6000 votes, and farmers had to travel more than a day to come and vote (hungry Athens was surrounded by the crucial arable land of Attica, full of voting Athenian farmers). After a while, it was found necessary to pay voters to travel, come and reach a quorum. With modern communications, people can just talk to their phone.

On top of this, the Roman Republic had several million voters, and could have survived, had the Optimates not been so stubborn and stupid, generation after generation, or had they not assassinated Caesar (long story). As it was, after the utterly chaotic civil war which followed Caesar’s assassination, a military dictatorship was established and Augustus made himself Tribune for life.   

The Roman Republic was three centuries old when it started to fall to a plutocratic exponentiation (very long story). It could have been avoided with much more sagacity after the defeat of Carthage and its Hellenistic Allies in the Second Punic war (surviving in good intelligence and trade with a subordinated Carthage would have been part of it).

As it was, it was one war after another. Distant wars made the generals and the traders accommodating them, immensely wealthy; tax avoidance schemes, globalization, etc. followed… In the chaos, the ROMAN ABSOLUTE WEALTH LIMIT became less than a memory (I have computed it to be around 22 millions in 2022 $). When Tiberius Gracchus tried to reestablish it, the Optimates engaged in a process which broke the Republic in the 100 years which led to Caesar’s assassination. 

***

Both Athenian and Roman Direct Democracies were mostly defeated and ruined by plutocrats (even in the Peloponnesian War, the main shock to Athens, the Persian plutocratic superpower played the crucial role, by paying for everything, using Sparta as a telerobotic terminator)

***

Rome’s Direct Democracy had similar limitations for its various institutions (Consul for one year, and could not be re-elected for a decade). However in emergencies, Rome could elect a dictator with the powers of an absolute king. Cincinatus was elected to the highest offices several times, including dictator twenty years apart, because Rome was being invaded by foreign armies… But still he was a farmer…. The first time, having defeated the enemy in a spectacular battle thanks to a massive mobilization and innovative methods which involved all of Rome making hundreds of thousands of stakes in a couple of days. Cincinatus returned to his plow within two weeks…

Democracy was not invented just because it is the natural state of human beings as created by millions of years of evolution. The interest civilization has in democracy is that democracy makes civilization more intelligent. This is why greater democracy tends to win wars.

Want democracy?

Want more intelligence in saving civilization from destruction?

Proscribe professional politicians!

Patrice Ayme

Note: The thoroughly corrupt present US political system seems very far from Direct Democracy. Systems in other oligarchic representative democracies are not as bad, but it is still the same general problem.  Timid steps have been taken, such as term limits. The US went overboard with an amendment preventing more than two presidential terms. France forbids two consecutive terms, and that is wiser: the only reason California governor Newson, a Getty creature, has a chance to run for president is that Obama can’t be a candidate again… It is likely that Obama would become a much better president if he was reelected. California’s governor Brown was better in his second 8 year passage. 

In any case the California mandatory referendums (1856 CE) and initiative system (1911 CE) has worked very well, and intensely, for more than a century, and is compatible with ORD … And the first start to do for other nation-states would be to imitate it if they want to augment the Democratic Index. 

That little light is a giant harvester working the fields. Enough fields to feed the two million people who call the area home, surrounded by mountains centered around Western Europe’s largest lake. The Swiss and the French have been careful to maintain self-sufficiency in food production… Which would be necessary if world trade collapsed as it did when the Roman state disnitegrated. By the way, Caesar defended Geneva successfally against the Helvetiae…

https://www.europesays.com/ch/84601/ Swiss Abroad overwhelmingly reject capping Swiss population #Article #BeatSwissAbroadCommunity #BeatSwissDiaspora #BeatSwissPolitics #DirectDemocracy #Immigration #Multi #Politics(general) #ProductionTypeAdaptation #Swiss #Switzerland #UserNeedExplainItToMe #UserNeedUpdateMe #Votes

Youtuber Fidias Scores New Political Victory as His Party Enters Cyprus Parliament https://www.byteseu.com/2050949/ #Cyprus #CyprusElections #DirectDemocracy #ElonMusk #FidiasPanayiotou #GreekNews #ParliamentaryElections

Hello Fediverse! 🇪🇺

We are STAR-PASS, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) working to ensure that the 12 stars of the Union are visible on our passports.

As we prepare for our May 9th launch, we are opening a Discord server for democratic coordination across all 27 member states. This will run in parallel with our WhatsApp group

Join a community of citizens taking charge of their identity:
🔗 star-pass.eu/discord

#EuropeanUnion #ECI #DirectDemocracy #EU #MastodonEurope #DigitalCitizenship

Hello Fediverse! 🇪🇺

We are STAR-PASS, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) working to ensure that the 12 stars of the Union are visible on our passports.

As we prepare for our May 9th launch, we are opening a Discord server for democratic coordination across all 27 member states. This will run in parallel with our WhatsApp group

Join a community of citizens taking charge of their identity:
🔗 star-pass.eu/discord

#EuropeanUnion #ECI #DirectDemocracy #EU #MastodonEurope #DigitalCitizenship

Hello Fediverse! 🇪🇺

We are STAR-PASS, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) working to ensure that the 12 stars of the Union are visible on our passports.

As we prepare for our May 9th launch, we are opening a Discord server for democratic coordination across all 27 member states. This will run in parallel with our WhatsApp group

Join a community of citizens taking charge of their identity:
🔗 star-pass.eu/discord

#EuropeanUnion #ECI #DirectDemocracy #EU #MastodonEurope #DigitalCitizenship

Hello Fediverse! 🇪🇺

We are STAR-PASS, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) working to ensure that the 12 stars of the Union are visible on our passports.

As we prepare for our May 9th launch, we are opening a Discord server for democratic coordination across all 27 member states. This will run in parallel with our WhatsApp group

Join a community of citizens taking charge of their identity:
🔗 star-pass.eu/discord

#EuropeanUnion #ECI #DirectDemocracy #EU #MastodonEurope #DigitalCitizenship

Hello Fediverse! 🇪🇺

We are STAR-PASS, the European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) working to ensure that the 12 stars of the Union are visible on our passports.

As we prepare for our May 9th launch, we are opening a Discord server for democratic coordination across all 27 member states. This will run in parallel with our WhatsApp group

Join a community of citizens taking charge of their identity:
🔗 star-pass.eu/discord

#EuropeanUnion #ECI #DirectDemocracy #EU #MastodonEurope #DigitalCitizenship

Quote 2 from Yavor Tarinski's new book "Horizons of Direct Democracy":

"""
It can be suggested that by reconfiguring the architecture of power, direct democracy strives at the greatest possible justice. In this sense it seeks to allow for everyone to participate in deciding on matters up to the point where our choice impinge on others, but from there on, others should have their own self-managing say. This comes to ensure a universal opportunity for every person to take equal responsibility and active part in crafting the path their community is going to take. In short, it seeks to integrate political participation with everyday life.
"""

Book available at https://on-our-own-authority-publishing.square.site/product/tarinski-horizons-of-direct-democracy/JPILP5RW2LT2LQ25AUXYRMPO

#Democracy #DirectDemocracy #SelfGovernance #Tarinski

Quote 1 from Yavor Tarinski's new book "Horizons of Direct Democracy":

"""
It is well known that citizenship in Ancient Athens (508-322 BCE) - where the concept is said to have initially emerged - meant something radically different from what we have today. Although the Athenian society of that time was plagued by slavery and patriarchy, with slaves and women being excluded from political life, it nonetheless underwent a revolution that saw the establishment of democracy, or self-management by the citizenry. For the Ancient Athenians such as Aristotle, there was a clear distinction between a democratic system and elections for representatives - the former was based on popular assemblies and sortition, while the latter was viewed as the building block of oligarchy. Although critical of democracy, Aristotle underlines its grassroots character:

--A democracy exists whenever those who are free and are not well off, being in a majority, are in sovereign control of the government, an oligarchy lies in the hands of the rich and better born, those being few.

This understanding of democratic politics as popular self-management continues throughout the ages. Eighteenth-century thinkers like Jean-Jacques Rousseau were well aware of the difference between democracy and representation: for Rousseau, when a government lays in the hands of the whole people, or of a majority of them, then we have a democratic society, while aristocracy or oligarchy is when the government is restructured to a small number of citizens (i.e. representatives). Similar was the stance on the issue of other prominent figures of the period. Thomas Paine, too, made a distinction between representation and democracy, understanding that in its original form the latter stood for a "society governing itself without the aid of secondary means."
"""

#Democracy #DirectDemocracy #SelfGovernance #Tarinski

So much for believing the government closest to the people governs best.

Republican-led states are ramping up efforts to make citizen-led ballot initiatives harder to pass, with Missouri lawmakers approving a bill to raise the threshold for amending the state constitution—pending voter approval. This trend has accelerated, with at least seven states advancing similar legislation and 148 bills introduced in 15 states this year to weaken direct democracy, according to the Fairness Project. The push comes after progressive wins on abortion rights through ballot measures, which succeeded in 7 out of 10 states since 2022. Will new hurdles stop future reforms? More: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/republicans-are-trying-raise-bar-voters-amend-state-constitutions-rcna230717 #ballotmeasures #Missouri #directdemocracy #votingrights #abortion #GOP #statepolitics

https://www.walknews.com/954851/ 中国発「社会信用システム」、民主主義はどう向き合うか – SWI swissinfo.ch #article #BeatAIGovernance #BeatDemocracy #BeatDigitalDemocracy #China #DirectDemocracy #GiveMePerspective #HumanRights #LawAndOrder #Multinationals #Parliament #TPT #中国 #中華人民共和国

https://www.propublica.org/article/red-state-ballot-initiatives-gop-republicans-florida-missouri

#Politics #DirectDemocracy #Propublica #PulitzerPrize #BallotMeasures #BallotInitiatives #Progressive #USA #America #Law #Justice #Republicans #Democrats #Vote #GerryMandering #MoneyInPolitics #Influence #Majority #Religion #CorporateGreed #Oligarchs #EatTheRich #RedStates #BlueStates #Democracy #States #Voters #Constitution #Florida #Missouri #TheWestIsBest

https://www.propublica.org/article/red-state-ballot-initiatives-gop-republicans-florida-missouri

#Politics #DirectDemocracy #Propublica #PulitzerPrize #BallotMeasures #BallotInitiatives #Progressive #USA #America #Law #Justice #Republicans #Democrats #Vote #GerryMandering #MoneyInPolitics #Influence #Majority #Religion #CorporateGreed #Oligarchs #EatTheRich #RedStates #BlueStates #Democracy #States #Voters #Constitution #Florida #Missouri #TheWestIsBest

Koreatown Popular Assembly Organized Neighborhood Power To Confront ICE
https://itsgoingdown.org/how-the-koreatown-popular-assembly-organized-neighborhood-power-to-confront-ice/

#directaction #directdemocracy #KoreaTown #KPA #mutualaid
#neighborhoodpower #popularassembly #solidarity

Koreatown Popular Assembly Organized Neighborhood Power To Confront ICE
https://itsgoingdown.org/how-the-koreatown-popular-assembly-organized-neighborhood-power-to-confront-ice/

#directaction #directdemocracy #KoreaTown #KPA #mutualaid
#neighborhoodpower #popularassembly #solidarity

Bonus Episode: Ariel Chats With Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario Incumbent

In this bonus episode, Ariel talks with Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario candidate and incumbent MPP for Kitchener Centre in the upcoming snap Ontario Election. This isn’t an endorsement, but a discussion that hopes to prod solarpunk talking points into the realm of politics. Aislinn and I talk about Green Party of Ontario goals for clean energy, supporting local workers, and how to channel your passion for social justice issues that you care about into empowering activism.

https://youtu.be/Bux_AEUlyoM

#solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #podcasting #AislinnClancy #GreenPartyofOntario #GreenPartyofCanada #MPP #KitchenerCentre #Canadianpolitics #KitchenerCentrePolitics #ProvincialElection #DirectDemocracy #Democracy #grassrootsOrganization #PoliticalOrganization #housingCrisis #workersRights @KitCenGreens #GreenParty #GreenPolitics

Bonus Episode: Ariel Chats With Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario Incumbent

In this bonus episode, Ariel talks with Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario candidate and incumbent MPP for Kitchener Centre in the upcoming snap Ontario Election. This isn’t an endorsement, but a discussion that hopes to prod solarpunk talking points into the realm of politics. Aislinn and I talk about Green Party of Ontario goals for clean energy, supporting local workers, and how to channel your passion for social justice issues that you care about into empowering activism.

https://youtu.be/Bux_AEUlyoM

#solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #podcasting #AislinnClancy #GreenPartyofOntario #GreenPartyofCanada #MPP #KitchenerCentre #Canadianpolitics #KitchenerCentrePolitics #ProvincialElection #DirectDemocracy #Democracy #grassrootsOrganization #PoliticalOrganization #housingCrisis #workersRights @KitCenGreens #GreenParty #GreenPolitics

Bonus Episode: Ariel Chats With Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario Incumbent

In this bonus episode, Ariel talks with Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario candidate and incumbent MPP for Kitchener Centre in the upcoming snap Ontario Election. This isn’t an endorsement, but a discussion that hopes to prod solarpunk talking points into the realm of politics. Aislinn and I talk about Green Party of Ontario goals for clean energy, supporting local workers, and how to channel your passion for social justice issues that you care about into empowering activism.

https://youtu.be/Bux_AEUlyoM

#solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #podcasting #AislinnClancy #GreenPartyofOntario #GreenPartyofCanada #MPP #KitchenerCentre #Canadianpolitics #KitchenerCentrePolitics #ProvincialElection #DirectDemocracy #Democracy #grassrootsOrganization #PoliticalOrganization #housingCrisis #workersRights @KitCenGreens #GreenParty #GreenPolitics

Bonus Episode: Ariel Chats With Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario Incumbent

In this bonus episode, Ariel talks with Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario candidate and incumbent MPP for Kitchener Centre in the upcoming snap Ontario Election. This isn’t an endorsement, but a discussion that hopes to prod solarpunk talking points into the realm of politics. Aislinn and I talk about Green Party of Ontario goals for clean energy, supporting local workers, and how to channel your passion for social justice issues that you care about into empowering activism.

https://youtu.be/Bux_AEUlyoM

#solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #podcasting #AislinnClancy #GreenPartyofOntario #GreenPartyofCanada #MPP #KitchenerCentre #Canadianpolitics #KitchenerCentrePolitics #ProvincialElection #DirectDemocracy #Democracy #grassrootsOrganization #PoliticalOrganization #housingCrisis #workersRights @KitCenGreens #GreenParty #GreenPolitics

Bonus Episode: Ariel Chats With Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario Incumbent

In this bonus episode, Ariel talks with Aislinn Clancy, Green Party of Ontario candidate and incumbent MPP for Kitchener Centre in the upcoming snap Ontario Election. This isn’t an endorsement, but a discussion that hopes to prod solarpunk talking points into the realm of politics. Aislinn and I talk about Green Party of Ontario goals for clean energy, supporting local workers, and how to channel your passion for social justice issues that you care about into empowering activism.

https://youtu.be/Bux_AEUlyoM

#solarpunk #SolarpunkPresentsPodcast #podcast #podcasting #AislinnClancy #GreenPartyofOntario #GreenPartyofCanada #MPP #KitchenerCentre #Canadianpolitics #KitchenerCentrePolitics #ProvincialElection #DirectDemocracy #Democracy #grassrootsOrganization #PoliticalOrganization #housingCrisis #workersRights @KitCenGreens #GreenParty #GreenPolitics

拜登退出。PlanB完成。

……
前些天里，我们一直在与一些热衷直接民主的中国朋友交流思想。鉴于IYP此前呼吁中国的无政府主义同志加入直接民主的倡导工作，一些热心朋友建议了理论思想的资料和传播方式，并一起进行了讨论。由于这些资料都没有中文，于是我们现在正在做一些翻译工作。

IYP关注局势的目的一如既往，旨在借助局势推动解放议程 —— 让局势服务于反抗战略。中国朋友对美国选举的热情远超过对其他国家，于是这是一个进行解放斗争倡导工作的良机。虽然建制派占据绝大多数的状况不难想象，但我们依然看到了新生代对变革旺盛的好奇心，这是希望所在。
期待更多朋友加入倡导工作，或至少，保持信心和关注。

🧬 https://t.me/iyouport/13854

#美国大选 #直接民主 #无政府主义 #直接行动 #USelections #directdemocracy #anarchism #directaction #antiestablishment

拜登退出。PlanB完成。

……
前些天里，我们一直在与一些热衷直接民主的中国朋友交流思想。鉴于IYP此前呼吁中国的无政府主义同志加入直接民主的倡导工作，一些热心朋友建议了理论思想的资料和传播方式，并一起进行了讨论。由于这些资料都没有中文，于是我们现在正在做一些翻译工作。

IYP关注局势的目的一如既往，旨在借助局势推动解放议程 —— 让局势服务于反抗战略。中国朋友对美国选举的热情远超过对其他国家，于是这是一个进行解放斗争倡导工作的良机。虽然建制派占据绝大多数的状况不难想象，但我们依然看到了新生代对变革旺盛的好奇心，这是希望所在。
期待更多朋友加入倡导工作，或至少，保持信心和关注。

🧬 https://t.me/iyouport/13854

#美国大选 #直接民主 #无政府主义 #直接行动 #USelections #directdemocracy #anarchism #directaction #antiestablishment

"In 1939, more than $200 million worth of vegetables were grown in 4.8 million farm home gardens... In 1944, 18.5 million gardeners took part in Victory Gardens, supplying 40% of the nation’s fresh vegetables."
The American people, through mutual aid and cooperative action, developed a genius plan to not only ensure the supply of resources to the war effort but to enhance the health, well-being, and solidarity of the population.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, our lives are being invaded and occupied by massive systems that produce our food, destroying our health and the health of the environment. It's war time, but this time, the goal is to claim the resources taken over by the mass, factory agriculture system and bring them back into local control. The Victory Garden revolution is the solution to bring sovereignty back to the people.
#victorygarden
#permaculture
#communityagriculture
#gangstagarden
#homegrown
#mutualaid
#localcontrol
#foodsecurity
#fooddesert
#foodforest
#directdemocracy

Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front (U.S. National Park Service)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/victory-gardens-on-the-world-war-ii-home-front.htm#:~:text=Victory%20Gardens%20freed%20up%20agricultural,their%20families%20enjoyed%20better%20nutrition.

"In 1939, more than $200 million worth of vegetables were grown in 4.8 million farm home gardens... In 1944, 18.5 million gardeners took part in Victory Gardens, supplying 40% of the nation’s fresh vegetables."
The American people, through mutual aid and cooperative action, developed a genius plan to not only ensure the supply of resources to the war effort but to enhance the health, well-being, and solidarity of the population.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, our lives are being invaded and occupied by massive systems that produce our food, destroying our health and the health of the environment. It's war time, but this time, the goal is to claim the resources taken over by the mass, factory agriculture system and bring them back into local control. The Victory Garden revolution is the solution to bring sovereignty back to the people.
#victorygarden
#permaculture
#communityagriculture
#gangstagarden
#homegrown
#mutualaid
#localcontrol
#foodsecurity
#fooddesert
#foodforest
#directdemocracy

Victory Gardens on the World War II Home Front (U.S. National Park Service)
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/victory-gardens-on-the-world-war-ii-home-front.htm#:~:text=Victory%20Gardens%20freed%20up%20agricultural,their%20families%20enjoyed%20better%20nutrition.

Knockin 'On Heaven's Door.

#poetry #writing #books #wisdom #knowledge #god #divine #music #Climatechange #War #famine #denialism #Atomicbomb #Death #EndOfTheWorld #Alternative #Revelation #Scientist #1970s #rock #hippy #fediverse #MakeLoveNotWar #Religion #marijuana #givepeaceachance #hippieday #1960s #peace #MeaningOfLife #ScienceNews #Psychology #Philosophy #PinkFloyd @rogerwaters #supertramp #DirectDemocracy #ecology #christianism #Freedom #Trump #Truth #ULTIMAHORA #Prophecies

What the End of the World could be like

#poetry #writing #books #wisdom #knowledge #god #divine #music #Climatechange #War #famine #denialism #Atomicbomb #Death #EndOfTheWorld #Alternative #Revelation #Scientist #1970s #rock #hippy #fediverse #MakeLoveNotWar #Religion #marijuana #givepeaceachance #hippieday #1960s #peace #MeaningOfLife #ScienceNews #Psychology #Philosophy #PinkFloyd @rogerwaters #supertramp #DirectDemocracy #ecology #christianism #Freedom #Trump #Truth #ULTIMAHORA #Prophecies

Now or never

#poetry #writing #books #wisdom #knowledge #thoughts #god #divine #music #Climatechange #War #famine #denialism #Atomicbomb #Death #EndOfTheWorld #Alternative #Revelation #Scientist #1970s #rock #hippy #fediverse #MakeLoveNotWar #Religion #PeaceSigns #marijuana #givepeaceachance #hippieday #1960s #peace #MeaningOfLife #ScienceNews #Psychology #Philosophy #PinkFloyd @rogerwaters #supertramp #DirectDemocracy #ecology #christianism #Freedom #Trump #Truth #ULTIMAHORA #Prophecies #arte

Latest #HopeGarden newsletter is out. Example of direct democracy, community meeting space at the heart of a wildlife #ForestGarden. Grant application goes in on Monday!

https://hopegarden.uk/blog/240305-newsletter/

#gardening #WildlifeGardening #CommunityAssembly #DirectDemocracy #PeoplesAssembly

Latest #HopeGarden newsletter is out. Example of direct democracy, community meeting space at the heart of a wildlife #ForestGarden. Grant application goes in on Monday!

https://hopegarden.uk/blog/240305-newsletter/

#gardening #WildlifeGardening #CommunityAssembly #DirectDemocracy #PeoplesAssembly

Latest #HopeGarden newsletter is out. Example of direct democracy, community meeting space at the heart of a wildlife #ForestGarden. Grant application goes in on Monday!

https://hopegarden.uk/blog/240305-newsletter/

#gardening #WildlifeGardening #CommunityAssembly #DirectDemocracy #PeoplesAssembly