[EM] secret ballots and proxy voting

[Michael Allan]

Hi Fred, (cc Votorola)

Fred Gohlke said:
> Why does this site not address the travesty Fobes describes?
>
> We are engulfed in the corruption and destructiveness inherent in
> party politics.  Surely the bright people on this site can come up
> with a better alternative.  Instead, they seem committed to
> perpetuating it.
> 
> Why is that?

I used to think that pointing to a problem, or even better to a
solution, would cause people to jump into action.  But I've since
learned that that's insufficient, and maybe even unnecessary.  People
simply are not motivated by ideas.  As Max Weber says:

    Not ideas, but material and ideal interests directly govern men's
    conduct.  Yet very frequently the "world images" created by
    "ideas" have, like switchmen, determined the tracks along which
    action has been pushed by the dynamic of interest. *

Fortunately, there's an alternative.  Rather than constructing "world
images" (hardly feasible) we may instead construct the tracks.  We may
put the technology into practice and leave the world images to take
care of themselves.  After all, this is what the railroad pioneers
like Richard Trevithick, George and Robert Stephenson did.

If anyone wishes to help in putting the technology into practice, we
have some "want ads" here: http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.html


  * Max Weber.  1915.  The social psychology of the world religions.
    *In* From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology.  Translated and edited
    by Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, 1948.  Oxford University Press.
    p. 280.  http://books.google.ca/books?id=e6m4xrnnDPgC

-- 
Michael Allan

Toronto, +1 416-699-9528
http://zelea.com/


Fred Gohlke said:
> Richard Fobes wrote:
> 
> "In politics the "power nodes" are the political parties.  They are much 
> easier to control than the voters.
> 
> Even the members of Congress are a bit too numerous to control, so 
> "special interests" (the biggest campaign contributors) make their deals 
> in backroom meetings with committee members.  Then (under threat of 
> withdrawal of money from election campaigns) the "majority whip" ensures 
> that all Congressmen from that party vote the way the party arranged to 
> vote."
> 
> Why does this site not address the travesty Fobes describes?
> 
> We are engulfed in the corruption and destructiveness inherent in party 
> politics.  Surely the bright people on this site can come up with a 
> better alternative.  Instead, they seem committed to perpetuating it.
> 
> Why is that?
> 
> Fred Gohlke