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00807: This is a group of democracy advocates!!! Re: [WDDM] Unequal voting rights? - Re: [WDDM] ReQuest for Defining "a bottom-up origin"

From: "M. Kolar" <wddm(at)mkolar.org>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:13:20 -0800
Subject: This is a group of democracy advocates!!! Re: [WDDM] Unequal voting rights? - Re: [WDDM] ReQuest for Defining "a bottom-up origin"

Pras Anand wrote:
....
Firstly, democracy isn't something I'm trying to adhere to. Social
Responsibility yes. You seem to think that democracy is some kind of be
all and end all idea. That is elitist. In fact I never said Social
Computer was supposed to educate people towards democracy or represent
it.
...
If you try to fit it into the narrow box of democracy - it might not fit. But that is because it is a superior format.
...
If you find that offensive - consider how elitist you may have become by thinking that democracy is the only way.

Pras,
claiming that promotion of democracy is elitist is a contradiction in terms.
The goal of democracy is to get rid of all the elites. The present system that
you criticize as we do, is not a true democracy. It seems that you want to
improve the present system by perpetuating those features (competition) that
made it corrupted. If you want to improve it, you should try to make the equal
conditions, a level-playing field, for everybody.
We do not claim that systems other than democracy (hierarchical systems) do
not work. You can see them working around you. However they work well only for
a small percentage of the population, and the rest is frustrated at best, as
you are. Only democracy should work on average equally well for everybody. They
are empirical proofs for it from places when various degrees of real
democratization succeeded. Have you read for example this article
http://democracy.mkolar.org/pdda/directdemorcamento.html? A quote from it:
"After 1992, property tax rates were reduced, but city revenues continued to
climb as tax evasion fell. The inverse relationship between direct democracy
and amount of tax evasion has also been described for Switzerland. The
experience of Porto Alegre seems to confirm the observations made in
Switzerland: when people feel that they have a say in expenditures, that the
taxes go in good use and are collected fairly, they are less inclined to evade
taxes."

I have to wonder why you are here if you do not believe in democracy? This is a
group of democracy advocates. Here is a passage from our mission displayed on
the home page of http://www.world-wide-democracy.net/:
"All members of the WDDM are dedicated to promoting an understanding of Direct
Democracy's benefits and spreading its influence on planet Earth. .... If you
have never visited us before, come on in, look around, and if you agree with
our philosophies, please join us."

By joining us, you have make a statement that you agree with our philosophies,
with the belief that democracy is the best system available. From you recent
post it seems to follow that you do not believe that. What are we supposed to
think (about you) now???


IE: You are a black, woman with children and an indian husband - you will not get the same respect in any country as a rich white male
in any country.
This is not universally true anymore, and the situation in this area is
improving maybe slowly, but steadily. At least rather large segments of
Canadian society (especially the young people) will treat everybody equal. I
definitely will.

Mirek



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