[Newspoetry] SEVEN PRECEPTS FOR A BETTER MILLENIUM (part 3)

[Paul Kotheimer]

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CONSENT AND CONSENSUS - Various Enlightenment treatises, including the
American Declaration of Independence, make frequent mention of "the
consent of the governed."  Electoral politics and majority rule subvert at
all times a sizable minority opinion, and frequently contradict the
opinion of the majority itself.  The marshalling of the resources of 100
per cent of a nation, or province, or municipality, on the basis of
decisions made by a tiny fraction of the population (i.e., elected
officials) is, far too frequently, a gross distortion of the political
will.  

At the time the current nation-states were being revolutionized into
representative democracies, it was difficult to tally even a hundred
thousand votes from a few hundred miles away.  Present-day technology
makes it possible to tally a hundred million votes in a matter of seconds
and to communicate the results instantaneously to and from anywhere on the
planet.  Furthermore, it is now possible to collect, collate, and
communicate the concerns, objections, and proposals of individual citizens
on a nationwide scale and on a daily basis.  True democracy demands that
communities implement such consensus-gathering systems, not just as
opinion polls, but as actual direct-action legislative tools.

--paul kotheimer
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