Re:Now Then – the hidden systems that've frozen time and sto...
by garethsprice on Monday July 28, 2014 @10:12AM
(#8096776)
"We get new digital systems almost weekly, that help us do things like monitor peoples activities and map their opinions, but these systems are all being deployed within a political system that has largely remained unchanged for our entire documented history."
In terms of documented history, democracy is still a young experiment - after outright tribalism, monarchism was the dominant system until a wave of revolutions between the 18th-20th centuries.
Democracy is changing rapidly (in historical terms) - the "digital trackers", Citizens United, creation and repeal of the Voting Rights Act. These will all have far-reaching implications.
A world with a "new political system almost weekly" would be mired in violent localized revolution and tribalism, which is how humanity lived for far longer than they've lived under representative democracy.
Re:Now Then – the hidden systems that've frozen time and sto...
by INTPenis on Monday July 28, 2014 @04:14PM
(#8099084)
I never said democracy specifically. I meant in a broader sense the systems where a minority have centralized power over a majority of largely unorganized masses.
In terms of documented history, democracy is still a young experiment - after outright tribalism, monarchism was the dominant system until a wave of revolutions between the 18th-20th centuries.
Democracy is changing rapidly (in historical terms) - the "digital trackers", Citizens United, creation and repeal of the Voting Rights Act. These will all have far-reaching implications.
A world with a "new political system almost weekly" would be mired in violent localized revolution and tribalism, which is how humanity lived for far longer than they've lived under representative democracy.