Rethinking democracy
In a project management workshop I did today, we were talking about the role of voting in project decision making. My observation is that voting on anything where we still have actionable unknowns is the quickest way to creating risks. I know here in the States we have a romantic relationship with voting as proof of democratic process, but we have simply too many examples of unfortunate decisions made at polls or in chambers by voting when research was both possible and necessary for intelligent conclusions.
Which leads to a second question about what it will take for us to rethink the whole concept of representation in an age where I can securely transfer money between my bank accounts using my cell phone or a high-tech box sticking out of a wall at a sports bar.
August 4th, 2007 06:41
It seems about 2400 years ago a fellow by the name of Plato came to a similar conclusion. He put it down in an essay called “The Republic” where he envisioned a “perfect” society ruled by super-enlightened types known as “Philosopher Kings” … The second tier in this society was to be occupied by the military who were to be worshiped as demi-gods. Their sole function was to protect the sacred posteriors of the aforementioned PKs … The lowest level was composed of the “proletariat”, meaning the common citizens - who were, in effect, non-citizens, whose function mainly was to pay taxes and provide slave labor for the building of monuments and other edifices for the glorification of the PKs and the troops … Plato’s idea resurfaces from time to time. It was hoped that such silliness would have been extinguished during The Enlightenment by the efforts of people like Voltaire and Thomas Jefferson - no such luck; this anti-democratic concept has been resurrected lately by a once formidible group led by the likes of Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney … I have it on the best authority (a professor friend of mine at NYU) that Wolfowitz, Bill Kristol and a number of other wannabe “Philosopher Kings” became quite fond of Plato’s theory when they were fratboys at college …