roundtable: Re: Cyber Democracy Economist Article

roundtable: Re: Cyber Democracy Economist Article

Re: Cyber Democracy Economist Article

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Mon, 3 Jul 1995 08:55:46 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Mon, 3 Jul 1995 08:55:46 -0400 (EDT)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: "S. Finer" <xerxes@clark.net>
Subject: Re: Cyber Democracy Economist Article
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SOL.3.91.950702202909.2635B@clark.net>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950703080811.552A-100000@access1.digex.net>


The real test of populism comes in the cyber democracy package when 
large scale public involvement with the questions of state, conflict 
with the traditional power structure and in particular with the 
traditional legislative representative's monopoly over public policy 
making.  But none of the old problems will go away, they will just 
get worse, in my view.
 
While the cyberspace citizens will be clamoring for expansion of their
powers to participate, very few have shown any serious interest in
securing *meaningful* participation.  At the same time because of 
fierce public resistance to disciplined participation through available 
"interactive management" methodologies, it will be much easier for 
those with instrumental control over the infrastructure to employ all 
the arts of manipulation on a larger scale than ever before witnessed. 

Only an approach embracing a strong ethic of participatory democracy, 
such as the "Cyberspace Society" that we launched recently, stands a 
chance of making a difference.

Everything is changing and everything is the same, and getting worse.  
The crunch will come when a large enough segment of the global people 
realize how fundamentally corrupt the current "democratic" civilization 
is.  Thus far the voice of reason comes only from a small segment of 
liberal democratic intellectuals, expresing unforgiving outrage.  Also, 
we have seen the children of the underclass together with a new class 
of revolutionary bombers cought in the web of the counterculture of 
madness who have given up on life and are, instead, engaged in bloody 
murder as a way to cope.  But Speaker Newt Gingrich and his cohorts 
are on to them, and they will soon be annihilated.  Then what ?  Will 
the mass media servants of property, or the people-at-large fixed on 
manipulative infotainment, exploitive sex, and gratuitous violence 
broadcast over television ever speak truth to power? 


Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>


-------------------------Original Message---------------------

On Sun, 2 Jul 1995, S. Finer wrote:
> 
> The June 17th to 23rd Economist had a series of articles on the topic of 
> CyberDemocracy and the idea of Direct Citizen guidance to government.  As 
> usual, the articles were thoughtful and well written, and the themes, to 
> my eye, seem both enticing and potentially revolutionary.  
> 
> The editors feel that CyberDemocracy (hereafter CD) may meet a need to 
> (1) skirt the growing power of lobbyists, and (2) close the gap between 
> the mass of citizens on the one hand, and too-jaded politicians and civil 
> servants on the other.  An appealing idea, if incomplete, no?  
> 
> I found out that the Swiss go to the polls four times annually....didn't 
> know that!  I like that idea.  Good for them.
> 
> Newspaper readers and television viewers are encouraged to volunteer 
> their opinions (sometimes paying for the privilege) in what the article 
> calls a "voo-doo" survey (meaning, I imagine, unscientific and 
> ungeneralizable), which some believe is a prototype of Interactive Politics.
> 
> But unscientific polls are easily manipulated .....  and results to a 
> single question can diverge completely depending on the survey wording 
> and method chosen.  Legitimate CD cannot permit this falsification.
> 
> The author asks the question, "If individaul voters can pose questions 
> and offer views, will representative democracy prove to be merely a 
> 200-year intermediate technology, a bridge between the direct voting of 
> ancient Athens, and the electronic voting of modern Cyberspace?"  
> 
> Any observations on this?  
> 
> xerxes has always found the cyberdemocracy "opportunity" most 
> intriguing......

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