The only sensible, compassionate political system left to us:
A parliament of 500 members of the electoral roll, selected at random. OG (Original Greek, ha) democracy, updated to include women &c. If chosen, you have the right to say no, and the computerised dice will be thrown once more.
Surely this is a million times better than the self-serving, careerist shower of pus we must endure now?
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SATIRE
http://i.imgur.com/vDyK9.jpg
ffs have some faith
I would and do have faith in ordinary peoples decency (over a sample of 500)
but i do not have faith in them starting off equiped to be able to throw off the predjudices and false assumptions that they will start off with having inherited them from whatever current troubled system is extant
this would be an incredible experiment to watch
not so sure I'd want to live through it
but, then again, I'm not sure they could do a worse job than the current chumps, eh
maybe if we got Channel 4 to do it for like 6 weeks to a city like birmingham
as a trial
it depends what those 500 people have been subjected to.....unfortunately
because sometimes the population as ha whole has been bombarded with simplistic misleading argument forms and discussions have been conducted in a bi partizan manner (which gives the false impression that there are alternatives (of two mostly).
So that a majority can be reached by the argument it is shorn of the subtlety and complexity and fuzzyness of reality as it is known.
Unfortunately you would therefore need people of above average mental abilities to be able to recognise their own conditioning in these matters (not that above average guarentees understanding) OTHERWISE you will get most of that 500 having been influenced to a warping degree, by the extant public understandings of issues and 'how things work'
If you were to say 500 people who were well educated in a balanced manner then I would agree (people are not just educated by schooling, the media also plays a major role)
it would be good if we could nurture 500 people from the cradle
to be good and learned without being too mudied by misinformation (whilst being aware that it is beamed into most folks minds
You'd inevitably indoctrinate them with a certain political view though - it'd be utterly unavoidable.
Plus you'd then get 500 people with no real-world experience. Like now, only more so.
I definitely think there needs to be an end to the idea of the careerist politican who goes straight from Uni to working in politics then running for election - it just doesn't make for a rounded selection of candidates.
I especially think no-one should be able to run a department that they've got no previous experience in. Otherwise you get Gove-esque ideologues who've got literally no ideas how the area they're running actually works in practice.
^this
It would be nice to have a government of technocrats, but I'm not sure that they would ever get elected.
I'd place a minimum age on MPs and require that if they do take a second job while representing their constituency, it's within the lowest 5% of the average income, not a few days sat on the board of a merchant bank.
Yeah - I'm not necessarily pushing for technocrats
but I like the idea of politics being something you go into after spending some years in some other field where you've built up some relevant experience so you go in with some knowledge.
From watching the news recently...
...it would appear that we can't even rustle up 12 competent people for a jury, let alone 500.
I'd have more faith in picking 500 animals like
Paul the Octopus (rip) and his mates Leon the porcupine, Petty the pygmy hippopotamus and Anton the tamarin and just giving them a yes/no vote on lots of issues. Safer than 500 random citizens of the UK
It's about the balance between effective, efficient exercise of power
and democratic fairness. Your model falls heavily into the scrupulously fair but completely ineffective camp.
That doesn't sound remotely sensible to me
Or compassionate.
what's your view on the competence of the Jury system?
I haven't really thought about it
Never had to face one.
think about it
why
See below. Its the only way:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benevolent_dictatorship
So the 500 people are replaced with 500 new people after 5 years?
Sounds like a perfect plan...to completely eliminate accountability.
WE MUST HAVE *SOMEONE* TO BLAME
We must have someone who is actually held responsible for the consequences of their decisions
like we do now you mean?
At the end of the 5 years if they're found to be corrupt they get shot.
I can't tell if this is meant to be sarcastic.
But yeah, like we do now, with the existence of elections.
oh FUCK OFF
?
oh dear
they will be accountable to their families and their communities
and to each other
So it's a bit like socialism but without the redistribution of wealth or development of class consciousness parts?
yes
but those things will only happen as the result of something like this
Why not just decide all legislation using referenda?
We have the technology to do so now, we can decide by lots the people who prepare the legislation for us to vote on.
Just let civil servants draft the legislati...
Oh, hang on.