Not direct democracy, not the rule of the people

[Michael Allan]

If you're still out there Martin, I have to confess that Votorola has
nothing to do with direct democracy, after all.

I was wrong to use terms like "sovereign consensus", implying that
people (or their collective agreements) might carry the force of
political power.  Literally, direct democracy means the rule of the
people, of course.  I no longer think that rulers or power have a
place in the ideals of democracy (or of whatever comes next, when we
can no longer speak of a "-cratos" ).

I think that new media (like Votorola) will remove decision making
(and much of politics) from the hands of power.  I think that the
*making* of decisions will be cleanly separated from the power to
*effect* them.  This isn't a new concept, either; it's already there
in social theory, and in history.  Not that I understand those fields,
very deeply.  But it makes perfect sense to an old engineer, like me,
that the power systems ought not to interfere with the guidance
systems!  (And if anyone doubts that power can be guided without
force, I'll point you to the control wires that are built into the
fabric of democracy itself.  Those wires will perform their function,
just as their designers foresaw!)

Anyway, I've rejigged the home page.  If anyone's out there, I'm
interested in other points of view,
-- 
Michael Allan

http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.xht