Can face-to-face assemblies run a modern industrial society ?
Aki ORR | 26.01.2002 14:51
A modern industrial society cannot be run by face-to-face assemblies
of ALL citizens. The only way ALL citizens can take part in deciding
policies is to have TV debates on policies, and voting by magnetic-crads.
These two technologies make possible a Direct Democracy where all
citizens have the right to vote directly on POLICIES rather than on delegates.
of ALL citizens. The only way ALL citizens can take part in deciding
policies is to have TV debates on policies, and voting by magnetic-crads.
These two technologies make possible a Direct Democracy where all
citizens have the right to vote directly on POLICIES rather than on delegates.
22.1.2002
Can a modern industrial society be run by face-to-face meetings ?
In his critique of my pamphlet "Neither Privatization nor Nationalisation
but Direct Democracy" (see Indymedia some 2 weeks ago) Takis Fotopoulos
(signing "Annonymous") writes: Aki Orr ". . . offers no vision of economic democracy
defined in terms of equal distribution of economic power. . . problems of unequal
distribution of economic power . . . are not solved if everybody has one vote . . . a vote
. . . is not a means of exercising economic democracy if the economic resources are
not equally distributed among the citizens".
I wrote "Every citizen must have the right to propose, debate, and vote on, every
political decision, and ALL employees must have the right to propose, debate, and
vote on, every decision concerning their place of work".
This enables people to decide themselves how to live their lives and what to do with their
economic resources (and is 100% Autonomous and NOT Heteronomous as Takis says).
If Takis believes this does not solve the problem of unequal distribution of economic resources
how does he suggest to "equally distribute" economic resources among the citiznes ?
Takis proposes face-to-face assemblies to debate and vote on political issues and then send
delegates to a "confederal assembly" which will decide overall policy. I am not opposed to
face-to-face assemblies, but matters of an entire country need DAILY decisions and those
citizens who attend the face-to-face assemblies will have no time left to do anything else.
Moreover, why are delegates required in the age of the magnetic card ?
Why, following a debate, can't we vote directly on policies by using magnetic card ?
Why not see on TV people from all over the country debating political issues ?
Why not phone to a TV panel (i.e. to the entire country) to say what we think of
a particular policy ?
Must we today, in the age of TV, speak/listen only to those sitting next to us in the same hall ?
Must we vote by raising a hand, or putting a piece of paper in a box when we can use a magnetic
card and see immediately results of millions of votes on TV ?
Why must we choose delegates to decide policies when we can choose policies directly ?
Aki ORR
Can a modern industrial society be run by face-to-face meetings ?
In his critique of my pamphlet "Neither Privatization nor Nationalisation
but Direct Democracy" (see Indymedia some 2 weeks ago) Takis Fotopoulos
(signing "Annonymous") writes: Aki Orr ". . . offers no vision of economic democracy
defined in terms of equal distribution of economic power. . . problems of unequal
distribution of economic power . . . are not solved if everybody has one vote . . . a vote
. . . is not a means of exercising economic democracy if the economic resources are
not equally distributed among the citizens".
I wrote "Every citizen must have the right to propose, debate, and vote on, every
political decision, and ALL employees must have the right to propose, debate, and
vote on, every decision concerning their place of work".
This enables people to decide themselves how to live their lives and what to do with their
economic resources (and is 100% Autonomous and NOT Heteronomous as Takis says).
If Takis believes this does not solve the problem of unequal distribution of economic resources
how does he suggest to "equally distribute" economic resources among the citiznes ?
Takis proposes face-to-face assemblies to debate and vote on political issues and then send
delegates to a "confederal assembly" which will decide overall policy. I am not opposed to
face-to-face assemblies, but matters of an entire country need DAILY decisions and those
citizens who attend the face-to-face assemblies will have no time left to do anything else.
Moreover, why are delegates required in the age of the magnetic card ?
Why, following a debate, can't we vote directly on policies by using magnetic card ?
Why not see on TV people from all over the country debating political issues ?
Why not phone to a TV panel (i.e. to the entire country) to say what we think of
a particular policy ?
Must we today, in the age of TV, speak/listen only to those sitting next to us in the same hall ?
Must we vote by raising a hand, or putting a piece of paper in a box when we can use a magnetic
card and see immediately results of millions of votes on TV ?
Why must we choose delegates to decide policies when we can choose policies directly ?
Aki ORR
Aki ORR
e-mail:
aki_orr@netvision.net.il
Homepage:
http://www.autonarchy.orh.il
Comments
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Aki ORR's method are close to stalinism
17.02.2002 11:54
(From the middle of the page and onwards the dialogue is in English).
Aki Orr only SELECTIVELY chose only ONE part of this dialogue and obviously did not refer to either the original dialogue or the replies that he received on these above points.
Furthermore, as even he admitted, Takis Fotopoulos had NOTHING to do with this exchange.
In this dialogue at some point Aki Orr wrote: "Earlier this month I sent Indymedia Athens an article entitled "Neither Privatization nor Nationalisation but Direct Democracy". Someone criticized my article, signing "Annonymous" and refering me to the web site
I (signing "Anonymous") had replied on this the following: "Aki Orr says that since I referred him to the website of the journal Democracy & Nature
I consider it indecent to "transfer" parts of such a dialogue to a different website with no mentioning of the original dialogue.
Alex Gezerlis
Homepage:
http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=2210&group=webcast