FBXL Social

[new draft post] What does it mean to have no kings? https://drafts.interfluidity.com/2024/11/13/what-does-it-mean-to-have-no-kings/index.html

@Hyolobrika we have a system whose skeleton would support one, we've just let it go in other directions. i'd start with electoral reform, so that multiple political parties contest. i'd dramatically expand the size of the house of representatives, perhaps consider something like this. you don't have a representative if it isn't someone you know, or at least can know if you want to. https://www.interfluidity.com/v2/9069.html 1/

@Hyolobrika i'd encourage states to subdivide into territories much smaller of roughly similar population size. i'd have the state finance, in a viewpoint neutral way, a wide variety of media. (viewpoint neutral by letting citizens allocate funding among orgs qualified on basic function, rather than directly allocated.) many more good ideas are out there. /fin

@Hyolobrika i'm a big fan of @ntnsndr i haven't read the book, but from a glance, it looks like he is advocating ways of strengthening democratic habits via civil society, participation in lots more democratic spaces, ideally personally and socially consequential, which i agree would help a lot, render us better at being part of a constitutional democracy.

@Hyolobrika it's not a matter of mere necessity. the ability to do things collectively at scale is the greatest technological achievement of humankind. a capable, legitimate, ethical state is key to the key to human flourishing, but it's pretty hard to get and keep all three of those characteristics!

a capable state always relies on individual enterprise, shapes and is shaped by it. freedom and collective capability coexist thanks to the magic of the central limit theorem.

@interfluidity @Hyolobrika True! Though the book also makes a strong case that the practices of governance in online communities has created a template for authoritarian politics at the national level.

@ntnsndr @Hyolobrika on face, that seems like a reasonable hypothesis! maybe in the open source world, we grew too comfortable with “benevolent dictator for life”. and obviously, surveillant commercial platforms.

@interfluidity @Hyolobrika And then, before long, the former president becomes a sysadmin and, by teaming up with another sysadmin, becomes president again.

@interfluidity The more threatened one feels (easily manipulated with propaganda), the more one wants a group identity and a strong leader to protect them. The theory is that tyranny of the in-group beats obliteration by the out-group. It leads to a bias against female leaders, who don't appear as tough, against minorities who don't look like me or the stereotypical in-group, and against committees who don't typically appear as strong, reassuring, and decisive.