If you put "consensus" on a pedestal you will in fact be in favor of minority rule. Majority rule is the less evil if it first strives for a relative consensus. Striving for consensus in absurdum is just plain stupidity and disables democracy. <div>2008/2/29, Michael Allan <<a href="mailto:mike@zelea.com">mike@zelea.com</a>>:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> /pd wrote: > I'll head back to the drawing board wrt to community. I remember the > issue about the the US. GOV rendering a decesion about the 10 > commandants artifact on one of their judicial doorsteps..there was > some major discussions about that one. Need to digg back to find i. Only 5 or 6 centuries. ;) It's actually an interesting topic, /pd, as I'm just learning. For instance, the influence of religion on the structure of modern society, including state structures (like those inhabited by the US government, and built right into their doorsteps, so to speak), was investigated by this fellow: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Weber</a> > ==>> "that people don't understand the social implications of *broad > consensus*, not even in the political sphere. And that's the > conceptual key." > > How are you defining "social implications" and what is "broad > consensus" ? 'Consensus' means general agreement. By 'broad consensus' I mean consensus on a large scale, like extending across an entire town, region, or nation. By social implications, I mean the effect that such consensus will have on society. Specifically - What happens when a town's community starts reaching consensus, all by itself, on particular issues of concern to it? How does that play out in the town's politics? How does it play out in the community, itself? And so forth. These are important questions, because communities will soon have the ability (with new social media, such as Votorola) to form consensus on any issue of concern to them. And they won't, I guess, be hestitating to use that ability. -- Michael Allan <a href="http://zelea.com/">http://zelea.com/</a> </div> -- Peace vision -> More democracy -> How? -> <a href="http://www.aktivdemokrati.se">www.aktivdemokrati.se</a>