In ancient Athens they had a process for banishing potential tyrants from the city. Athenians had learned the hard way that threats to democracy cannot be tolerated and, to maintain the people's power, they removed those who would challenge it in favor of oligarchy. There are lessons to be learned from that.
@benlockwood One lesson that seems to escape many is that majoritarian democracy not only allows but invites tyrants to seek power. When 51% of voters can elect a tyrant that the other 49% don't want and violence is threatened or used to let this happen, this leads to what Wolfgang Koeppen called "a dictatorship of the majority" and this is just what people in the so-called "United States of America" have.
@flyhigh I see this often and don’t understand the counter argument. Sure, democracies can make bad decisions. What are you saying then? That the solution is to not have a democracy at all, and thus guarantee the one major bad decision a democracy could make? I just don’t follow
@benlockwood I don't know what the solution is! What I do know is that there are many, many answers to your question. First, all nation-states are protection rackets aka criminal enterprises and that is why it makes perfect sense that the "leader" of the so-called "United States of America" is an open criminal. Second, nation-states are only after their own power and status and riches and cannot cooperate with each other to meet the greatest threat all humans face now and that is climate collapse.
Somehow, all people need to move away from nation-states and the majoritarian democracies that keep those protection rackets going. How to do this? I don't know. My aim is anarchy aka 100%-agreement-based decision-making.
Again, how could this be done? I don't know but what I know is the "system" in place now is failing so badly that it cannot be kept going. Do you have a better idea? I am against both fascism and majoritarian democracies because they both lead to criminals stealing not only money but people's lives.
One last reminder, when I say "I don't know" that doesn't mean there are no answers. It means there are many. The moment I tell you I have an answer, that is no longer anarchy.
@flyhigh Okay yeah I see what you're saying now. I mostly agree, although I am not against majority democracy. I think full, participatory, consensus-based democracy can exist at some scales, but not at others. And I think some higher-scale coordination is needed beyond just the hyper local. But at the same time I think you're right that it doesn't need to be the nation-state. So yeah, many possibilities in there.