Automating Democracy - The Real Power to the People

Logikos

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Feb 26, 2014
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A Dialogue towards Total Inclusion (A Book by Busara Bin Hekima)

Introduction:

With all its problems, still most argue that Democracy is somehow the better alternative way of governing, as Winston Churchill is believed to have said…, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…

With all its advantages it comes with some shortcomings…, it is slow in decision making, costly, prone to corruption, inefficient, long discussions, short term thinking, voters lack of information, and it has given rise to extremist and populist parties, to name just a few….

In order to rectify this the author, proposes Democracy Automation, whereby all the cons will be turned into advantages, for the benefit of the people…, that is bringing real Power to the People.

To convey this point across, the book uses a dialogue between characters, namely The Citizen, The Politician, Critic and Observer.

CONTENTS
Chapter One; Has Democracy Failed

Chapter Two; Argumentum ad Populum

Chapter Three; Politics of Creating More, not Dividing what's Available

Chapter Four; Self - Managed Transparent Communities

Chapter Five; Rethink the Purpose and Improve the Process for better Outcomes

Chapter Six; Rectifying the Cons of Democracy

CHARACTERS:
Politician; A man with Charisma, cunning and untrustworthy, in favor of things as they are, been in Politics all his life

Citizen; A middle aged man who has undergone hardships, the forgotten man, always hoping for the future to no avail, consistently being lied to by the Politician.

Observer; A young man who believes we can always do better...., sees merits at both arguments....

Critic; An Old Man who hates the current situation, has misgivings about current democratic regimes, especially the costly nature and slowness of democracy....
 
CHAPTER ONE; HAS DEMOCRACY FAILED ?
Venue; Inside a local Bar, The Citizen (a Bartender) is serving two of his Customers; Critic and the Politician both sitting at the counter...., across on the far side Observer is drinking while reading a newspaper....

Critic; You guys...., I wonder where you are taking our country, your indecisiveness, unnecessary discussions...., aargh whichever you say no matter if it's good or bad your party supports it; whatever they say no matter how good it is your party oppose it..., in the end nothing gets done...., and you know who pays for it?

Politician; the other side have no morals..., what they do is for the detriment of our country, we all pay for their unsupportive behaviors.

Critic; what do you mean we all pay for it, you guys the politicians continue to get paid from our hard earned cash through taxes, you don't pay for it..., you are the only winners with one big looser (our country) and the person who pays for your inefficiencies is the citizen over there..., it's about time we stop these utopian ideas of everyone having a say..., these endless discussions with nothing being done needs to end....

Politician; My friend, Power to the People is the Way to go..., everyone needs to have a say in decisions which involves them..., as you might well know power corrupts and if we are to let centralized people decide what's good for us. isn't that gambling our future?

Critic; What future? Is there any light at the end of this democratic tunnel? You must agree with me the rise of extremist parties, populism, endless protests, poor economic performance of some democracies...., All this messiness is not heaven but hell.... , and contrast to that there are some nondemocratic countries which are doing far better in those fronts

(Observer approached the counter and takes a sit besides Critic)

Observer; better on those fronts at the cost of what?

Critic; Who are you?!!! Or your practicing your democratic right to bulge on other people's conversations!!!

Observer; sorry again to bulge in.. but I could not let this slide..., it's hard to equate economic growth and equality, social rights of people..., the checks and balances.. and what not....

By the way is economic growth a substitute for checks and balances, equality and social justice? Must we have one and not the other? We might say this kind of democracy is not working... , but does it mean democracy is bad, do we need to go from one extreme to the other or should we talk about rectifying what's not working rather than saying the whole thing is bad.

Critic; talk..., talk... , talk just talking with no action that's what is failing our citizen over here.. endless debates with nothing to show at the end... do you call that working, there are some countries which does not have this time-wasting inefficiency way of doing things.... , and those nations... if anything, they do get things done. Some very good people have argued that, even ancient Rome achieved more under the autocratic Caesars than it did under democratic rule.

Observer; I don't mean we or rather the politicians should continue with their endless debates and politics of division; what am suggesting is to have a democracy which is real for the people and by the people.. democracy which is efficient and gets things done efficiently.

Critic; no way? you cannot have it both ways... , It's not in democracy nature to be fast in important decision makings, not to have many unnecessary discussions, not be expensive, avoid opportunistic nature of these politicians, be far from corruptions...

Politician; aarrgh, give me a break..

Critic; am not finished yet... , and worse of all, we might think it's good to involve the citizen here in every decision making..., but is that an informed decision, or rather is it really the decisions of the citizen or the politicians and their political parties?

Politician; what are you saying? That we are not the people's representatives?

Critic; you might call yourself representatives by name, but in reality, you are just representing your own self-interests..., and most times what you do is short term just to please the voters, and even worse for you guys to lie just to get more votes is a second nature....

Observer; am with you Critic, what we have now is not working, but as I said before can't we have the good without the bad..., you have pointed some of democracy shortcomings which you say cannot be rectified due to its making...., that we have to take the rough with the smooth... Something which I do not agree with...

Critic; Am sure you know about Plato's Book Republic…, whereby Socrates raises a number of objections to democracy, claiming that democracy is a danger due to excessive freedom. He also argues that in a system in which everyone has a right to rule all sorts of selfish people who care nothing for the people but are only motivated by their own personal desires are able to attain power. He concludes that democracy risks bringing critics, tyrants, and demagogues to power. He also claims that democracies have leaders without proper skills or morals and that it is quite unlikely that the best equipped to rule will come to power… Though I might not agree wholeheartedly about that observation but what is currently happening…, the populists, the incapable's in power and the endless mob rules and protests..., one cannot stop wondering if...., just maybe Socrates had a point...

Observer; let me also quote Winston Churchill famous remark "No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise, Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time"

Politician; Indeed, rule by the people is the only way....

Critic; rule by the people...., give me a break man, these democratic regimes we now have are anything but "rule of the people"

Citizen; but I think even the feeling of being involved and participation is worthwhile.... Such a feeling avoids a lot of conflicts which might have otherwise occurred.

Critic; having such a feeling at what costs, should we keep on putting a lot of resources in this lie. Yes it avoids conflicts until the other side feels unrepresented and forgotten, then we get endless protests and rule of the mob rather than rule of the people

Politician; I think no one in their right mind can question or rather oppose rule of the people or the many...

Critic; a better question is...., does such thing exists; better yet can it exist? Tell me please.... or all the power mongers and the demagogues use it to push their own self greedy interests... what a better way of putting lipstick on a pig..., and you know the ingenuity about this fraud? they can always blame the citizen for casting their vote wrongly thus this other guy asking them to vote for them, and not that other guy.... little does the citizen know that it's the same script and only the cast is different, thus these shenanigans go on by just changing the bottles while the wine remaining the same

Observer; Yes, we can have a better system than what we currently have..., a system which is real for the people and by the people.

Critic; if we reiterate the Story of the Doctor and Shop Owner in the Plato's Republic "The sweet shop owner can make the argument against the doctor that "he gives you bitter syrups and pokes holes on you, cuts your skin and take your blood," but he (the shop owner) can offer you many sweets and candies. Surely no one with their right mind would vote for the doctor..., would they?"

Now should we carry on embracing the system which makes it harder for the doctors to do their jobs and let the sweet shop owners destroy our lives...

Politician; So, you had rather we put in power some unknown quantity who can at any time turn against us..., and whenever that happens, do we have the power to tell them to step down? Or once the mistake is made its ours to live with for the rest of our miserable lives.

Critic; so, we should continue to gamble our future and put our lives at stake..., let our lives be decided by the people whom most of the times are uninformed? One man once said, "The best Argument against Democracy is a Five Minutes Talk with an Average Voter"

Politician; come on man the average uninformed voter chooses people like us to represent him in different decisions (and I don't see ourselves as uninformed),

Critic; so, in the end it's not real democracy rather than power to the people, it's power to the selected few... , representative democracy, but then..., one wonders the real people these so-called representatives do represent...

Observer; I think we can all agree the purpose of democracy is not the problem

Critic; what purposes are those? As recently you guys have been all over the place, I don't even think you know what is what anymore...

Observer; I think not many will argue against the choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; protection of the human rights of all citizens.... but I can see the unasked question from the Critic which makes the all notion about democracy sometimes hard to swallow, does what majority always wants good for the majority let alone minority?

Critic; And if those majority are uninformed in such decision making...., I tell you, that's a recipe for disaster....

Observer; indeed, and that's takes me to my next point....
 
CHAPTER TWO; ARGUMENTUM AD POPULUM
(Are Majority Always Right?)
Critic; they say if many believe so, it is so but through my experience I can guarantee you.. many a times it's not so.... And my question becomes how do we protect ourselves from the horrendous decisions by the majority if such decisions affects us... , especially if we are the minority. As Larry Flynt once said "Majority rule only works if you're also considering individual rights, because you can't have five wolves and one sheep voting on what they should all be having for supper."

Observer; The tyranny of majority is a constant threat to minority groups. I think we need to decrease the amount of decisions which needs to be made by the people...., things which affects people's right's justice and basic human needs should not be up for debate, but rather should be done as a duty....,

Citizen; what do you mean..., they say someone meat is others poison..., how can you say this need is more important than that need..., shouldn't we the people decide on what is what

Observer; it's different if we debate either to build a two storey or four storey school, and I think that should be a question for the experts to decide after looking at the merits but the question of if we should build a cinema before a school in times whereby the same community have some kids without education opportunities, should be entertained if and only if such cinema will bring more money and income which will enable such community to build a better school easier.. . .

Critic; and such decisions as I can gather if were to be left for the majority maybe the outcomes would have been detrimental, either because the outcome will make the majority happier to the detriment of the minority, or because of lack of information....., they might not know that maybe having a Cinema now, will make it possible for a better school to be built next year...

Politician; but wouldn't a better alternative be for us...., (and by us, I mean we the people or rather the representatives) to relay information to the people so that they can make the right decisions?

Observer; the right decision can never be anything more than the fact that education should be a right to each and every one therefore enough schools, or let's say a hospital is not a luxury, but a necessity...., thus such things should never be up for discussions, which in this case just waste time.

Critic; And in your example, who's better equipped to make such decisions, the economists, experts and the construction people or the politicians and the Cinema goers? And if they are many Cinema goers than parents with kids what then....

Observer; And I don't mean Cinema's and leisure are not an important issue in any community...., but do we build Cinemas or invest in luxury before others have their basic needs? Shouldn't we make sure everyone has their basic needs first, then and only then start making decisions as a group on other stuffs...., don't you think our decision making as a group will become easier?

Citizen; and how do we do that?

Observer; that's take me to my next point....
 
Nasikia Kuna namna ya kutumia blockchain technology to create decentralized government
I think this will work well with the idea you presented,but Hawa politicians lazima walinde masilahi yao hawatoikubali
 
Nasikia Kuna namna ya kutumia blockchain technology to create decentralized government
I think this will work well with the idea you presented,but Hawa politicians lazima walinde masilahi yao hawatoikubali
Naam with current technology hakuna sababu ya kushindwa kuwa na direct democracy, ofcourse politicians hawataikubali mara zote changes zinafanywa na wale ambao wanaumia sio wale ambao wanaumiza au hawana maumivu.... (people can do it) ila sidhani kama itakuwa any time soon (as people many of us we are just not bothered, kama watu hatujawa wafuatiliaji kujua nini ni nini na kwanini nini kipo vipi na kina-tuaffect vipi...
 
Naam with current technology hakuna sababu ya kushindwa kuwa na direct democracy, ofcourse politicians hawataikubali mara zote changes zinafanywa na wale ambao wanaumia sio wale ambao wanaumiza au hawana maumivu.... (people can do it) ila sidhani kama itakuwa any time soon (as people many of us we are just not bothered, kama watu hatujawa wafuatiliaji kujua nini ni nini na kwanini nini kipo vipi na kina-tuaffect vipi...
Nasikia nchi ya Estonia tayari wameanza kutumia decentralized government
Sipati picha ilivo amazing,but it need time to adjust
 
Nasikia nchi ya Estonia tayari wameanza kutumia decentralized government
Sipati picha ilivo amazing,but it need time to adjust
With time and right infrastructure hii kitu ni rahisi sana na inaweza kufanikiwa....

Jambo la maana ni uelewa wa wananchi sababu lazima wawe informed ili waweze kutoa / kuchangia mambo...

Ila tukiongelea decentralized government per-se hii ni rahisi sana inaweza tu ikawa serikali ya mfumo wa majimbo kwamba kila jimbo linaamua mambo yake (ila hii huenda ikawa na ugumu katika kushare rasilimali / baadhi ya majimbo kuwa nyuma kuliko mengine)

Ila kwa kila mwananchi kuweza kuwa na maamuzi directly kwa kutoa michango yake na ikasikika na kuwa na transparency that needs another level of involvement na uelewa wa wananchi hao (infrastructure tayari ipo its just a political willingness ndio haipo) ila with time mambo yatabadilika ila sidhani kama ni leo au kesho
 

CHAPTER THREE; Politics of Creating More, not Dividing what’s Available​

Observer; let me start by telling the following made up story…

Politician; do we have time for that? Some of us are busy you know…, we have some decisions to make and people to represent…

Critic; Come on man…, you could either be drinking quietly by yourself or as we are now doing debating about the future of our community, I think the latter is worthwhile….

The Story of the Household and their Sliced Bread
There was once a household which had bread for their meals…. things went without problems until the household number increased…, then problems started as to how to distribute that bread among the members…, in the beginning it was okay because the father as the bread winner decided which piece should be given to whom…

After a while household members started to complain, the father, since no more the only bread winner why should he decide who gets to eat what piece… the once peacefully house become the house of conflicts, and since the father had no more power like he once had he could no more stop any dissidents which now had become a daily routine, the mother using her wisdom decided this cannot continue…, the members should decide as a whole who gets what, and to oversee such decision they needed a representative whom will foresee and guarantee the decisions made takes the young ones into consideration…, after all if the decisions were to be left for the group, they might end up leaving just crumbs for the little ones….

So, it was decided…, and as to whom will oversee the distribution it was agreed should be among the elders…, i.e. either the mother or the father, all household members will vote for either to oversee the distribution for a term of one week by the end of which they will vote again….

That decision made all household members feel they are part of the household…., and the dissidents became the thing of the past…, but with the good also comes the bad, father and mother were spending their time trying to convince the members to vote for them to become the overseer, or to stay as the overseer…, bribes of extra pieces of bread became the normal procedure, and the efficiency of doing things slowed…., instead of getting busy in finding more bread, the members were busy deciding and campaigning whom should oversee the bread division.

One day one of the young ones had enough…, she was tired of eating crumbs and sometimes going without bread…, in one of the meetings though she was not eligible to vote, she asked…., instead of using our utmost energy deciding and campaigning and fighting who should decide who gets what…, why don’t we put our minds together and think how we can get more bread instead of just this one?, and maybe instead of fighting in these meetings we could have been deciding if we should use butter, jam or margarine in our breads...

Politician; what’s the point of your story…., you know theoretically we can always make more bread…, but practically that might not be possible….

Observer; Might not be possible for everyone to have their jam, butter or margarine…, but bread? that should not be up for negotiation…., and without everyone having bread democracy will always be at risk…, people 's economic well-being and democracy should be as a glove is to a hand…., as the glove protects a hand so does economic well-being protect democracy.

Critic; I hear you…, by having some forgotten people somewhere the populists and the extremists will get people to rally with them with their agendas…, and in the end it will be like…, like….,

Observer; like what we currently have….

Politician; what is the bread and what is the jam or butter, as to some jam is just…, well you know a necessity

Observer; indeed, it will come a time when jam is a necessity but bread will remain to be bread…, you cannot be talking about jams as head of a household while some members have no bread…., and that can only be achieved if we make effort to have more bread....

Politician; what is bread in your scenario….

Observer; citizen what are your main basic needs…

Citizen; for me I think it’s guaranteed food, clothing, housing, healthcare and to do right by my kids…, and by that, I mean guaranteed education and opportunity for them to be what they can be….

Politician; but we do offer those my friend…., have you not seen our manifesto…., we even offer free education and we are planning free healthcare, and…., and….

Observer; first of all, there is nothing free, it might be free for you but some other poor soul is paying for it…., second the poverty gap of have and have-not is increasing daily….

Politician; what do you mean…, so you are against us, making sure everyone gets education…., and as for the poor we cannot all be the same, and poverty alleviation is a continuous struggle….

Observer; you are talking about the poor as some indigenous people whom we need to have…., and as for offering free education or free housing or free food and what not…, it's not sustainable and instead of doing that we should ensure income earning opportunity is a guarantee so that everyone can afford their bread, their cloth and their house…., after all even if we were to move and give the poorest some of the wealthiest and pristine location with top notch housing and move the wealthiest to the poverty stricken slums…, it won’t be long before the slums turn into wealthy area and the wealthiest areas becoming slums…..

Citizen; what do you mean?

Observer; you might think its a cultural thing for the poorest to live or behave as they do…., but in reality, the main difference between the have and have not, is income to sustain one’s life within the community which one is living

Citizen; so, what needs to be done?

Observer; guarantee that each and every member of the community (i.e. every household) has income so as to afford housing, food, clothing, healthcare, education for his children, and remain with disposable income for leisure…

Politician; and how can you guarantee that (apart from lying to the citizens)? And how has that got to do with democracy?

Observer; as to how that leads me to my next point, and how is that democracy or politics…., back to my bread example…., after we guarantee everyone has their bread as a right (to be precise income to earn his bread)…., then and only then we can start discussing or rather politicize the jams and the butter. As I previously said economic well-being to democracy is what a glove is to a hand….

Critic; not that am not liking what am hearing but how are you going to ensure income earning opportunity for each and every one….

Observer; not wanting to go too deep about that since that’s another argument…., but there are some points which I read in Busara’s book The Socialistic Capitalist in Free Market and Total Poverty Eradication, there are some suggestions of how employment for all and minimum working hours with more leisure time can be a possibility

Politician; aarrgh…. what’s this trying to sell us books? Just in summary please if you don’t mind explain how income earning for all will become a reality…, now you are starting to act like the other side…, always promising the moon.

Observer; by people’s empowerment from the household level…., as they say take care of the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves….

Politician; What?!!!

Observer; a bottom up approach which will manifest in a self-managed self-contained transparent community.
 
A Dialogue towards Total Inclusion (A Book by Busara Bin Hekima)

Introduction:

With all its problems, still most argue that Democracy is somehow the better alternative way of governing, as Winston Churchill is believed to have said…, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…

With all its advantages it comes with some shortcomings…, it is slow in decision making, costly, prone to corruption, inefficient, long discussions, short term thinking, voters lack of information, and it has given rise to extremist and populist parties, to name just a few….

In order to rectify this the author, proposes Democracy Automation, whereby all the cons will be turned into advantages, for the benefit of the people…, that is bringing real Power to the People.

To convey this point across, the book uses a dialogue between characters, namely The Citizen, The Politician, Critic and Observer.

CONTENTS
Chapter One; Has Democracy Failed

Chapter Two; Argumentum ad Populum

Chapter Three; Politics of Creating More, not Dividing what's Available

Chapter Four; Self - Managed Transparent Communities

Chapter Five; Rethink the Purpose and Improve the Process for better Outcomes

Chapter Six; Rectifying the Cons of Democracy

CHARACTERS:
Politician; A man with Charisma, cunning and untrustworthy, in favor of things as they are, been in Politics all his life

Citizen; A middle aged man who has undergone hardships, the forgotten man, always hoping for the future to no avail, consistently being lied to by the Politician.

Observer; A young man who believes we can always do better...., sees merits at both arguments....

Critic; An Old Man who hates the current situation, has misgivings about current democratic regimes, especially the costly nature and slowness of democracy....
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