Voting

30 Oct 2021 02:15 - 17 Jun 2023 08:29
Open in Logseq
    • A key mechanism that allows democracies to implement group agency.
    • I am interested in two aspects of voting: first, in the performative / ritualistic aspects, how it provides a minimal amount of participation, how it brings the country together into a group decision process. It's a ritual whose product is not just decisions, but legitimation of itself and the institutions it is part of. That fascinates me for some reason. For me, voting is something like my equally dubious participation in religious ritual; I act despite my doubts and am fascinated by the fact that my lack of belief doesn't matter than much, the ritual has a power of its own. (see Politics as Ritual )
    • I also have a nerdly interest in alternative voting systems like Demeney Voting and Liquid Democracy. Those appeal to an entirely different part of my mind.
    • The ability to vote at all is something I've taken for granted most of my life, although at least I'm aware that there were people who had to fight for that right, and hard. But today that right is under relentless attack by one of the two major US political parties. And whether this is the intention, they are weakening the legitimacy of the state and thus contributing to social chaos.
    • That was a weird thing to think for an old anarchist, but I guess I'm at the age where I'm allowed to turn conservative in my attitudes. I may not like the state but I dislike fascist hellscapes even more.
    • Misc refs

      • See this thread