I beg to disagree, and I would love to invite you to a trip to
Switzerland, where indeed referenda are held 4 times a year on all kinds
of things, from deciding whether to build a new school or (infamously)
whether to ban minarets. Sometimes you and I may agree or disagree with
an outcome, but the last time I checked, overall policy decisions in
Switzerland were no better or worse (according to my parochial judgment)
than those of any other European country without regular referenda.
When I last checked (a week ago), Switzerland was not "frighteningly
fascistic". In fact, it is the opposite. A simple reason is that if
people are asked in referenda /repeatedly/, they /learn/ how to act in
referenda (including the fact that the state develops complex techniques
for administering them, that overcome the beginner mistakes of the
Brexit referendum (was it advisory or not? What were the options
exactly? etc.). Most importantly, they /do/ get engaged in the relevant
questions and are much better informed about issues. They also have the
possibility to decide case by case whether they agree with a certain
policy, rather than being forced to vote for a party with which they may
agree in some issues bit disagree in others.
(Also ask yourself: Are MPs better informed and do they make better
arguments than random people on the street? Answer: They do not, for the
simple reason that they are not trained to be policy makers).
best
Michael
On 23/08/2019 11:28, Sean Cubitt wrote:
John writes:
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2019 08:48:41 -0700
From: John Preston <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: <nettime> From Meat Loaf to Penalty Shoot Outs
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Technological development puts pressure on social institutions. We need
a system of governance which encourages rapid iteration and mass
participation, two features lacking in our current democracies.
the problem is that referendums are not a viable alternative - partly
for the reasons David gives: abandonment of evidence, argument or -
I'd add - a commitment to the good life for all.
Judiciously timed, a referendum on restoring the death penalty would
succeed in any European country. So would bans on abortion, gay
marriage, modest dress for Muslim women, immigration, and very
probably heavy metal
There is surely an arrogance in expertise, and a we-know-best among
professional politicos. But to exchange that for constant (and
compulsory?) opinion polling wouldn't change the new problem which is
exactly that: ubiquitous real-time comment IS government by opinion
poll, and it is frighteningly fascistic. The new national-populisms
rely on just such technological by-passes because they know they do
not construct the public but a plurality of publics, each of which can
be triggered by the right (usually negative) stimulus - this is the
whole strategy of social media marketing in the US, UK and across Europe.
Sadly - since it requires far more work - the political solutions are
the only response to political problems. Yes, any politics in the 21st
century must be mediated, and media techniques and technologies impact
politics just as politics impact on technologies and techniques.
The challenge is to build political media that are in service of the
good of all - including non-humans -- a medium that allows the Amazon
a voice, that could be interesting . . . .
Sean
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]
# @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
--
----------------------------------
Michael Guggenheim
17 Popham Street
N1 8QW London
UK
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]
# @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
