Not that lone voice

I have been going on about how the Political Parties have subverted democracy to their own power cause. See: The Political No Vote, Political Wilderness, Living a Now Life. I choose not to select a Party and if I am not able to Vote for a person to represent me, me not their party, or am not able to vote for None of the Above then I will not Vote. In parallel I object to being reduced to making the illiterates mark of an 'X' to signify my choices. In this day and age we are capable of expressing and uniting on a far wider and complex range of thoughts, opinions and agreements. An 'X' says nothing. Going on about it but apprehensive, was I unrealistic, too idealistic, too remote from the nitty gritty of every day, just an oddball with a soap box.

Turns out, thanks to, of all publications, the New Scientist - We the People (see also A Vote for Change) that I am not alone! Across the democratic world there are thousands of people with similar thoughts all looking to find better ways of applying democracy in practice. People with very similar ideas actually trying out and trailing alternative ways of enabling the everyman to contribute to a consensus view. Vindication! With Facebook and Google claiming to know before I do where my interest lie why oh why have they not promoted these other organisations onto my news feeds? Surely it cannot be that no advertising income is being generated by peoples democracy? So join in the discussion, you and I are not alone, there is a movement out there of like mind people. We just need to connect with them.

Pulling Together

When a concern hits the Nation I have been surprised how, from across a very wide spectrum, all the people you talk to, from the extremes to rock solid traditionalist, there is a centralised opinion which conforms on the right response. Very pragmatic, largely conservative with a knuckle down and deal with it approach. Across the Nation we are more united in our responses to affairs that trouble us than you would think from the presentations showing our divided Nation. Within that broad spectrum of agreement on the direction needed as a response there are of course huge and passionate differences on how that response might be best implemented. That is were our diversity shows itself but that then is a healthy arena for debate, compromise and reaching consensus.

So long as there is a pause button. In highly charged situations say where a girl has been assaulted we do need a check to the Nations emotive response of tying the culprit to the whipping post. We need time for passions to cool and logic, reason and doubt to surface. Just maybe the culprit was a boy of same age and they had just finished playing a computer game, or the girl was a self harmer and it brought her pleasure, or a parent slapped her shin once for excessive outburst and the girl was given to drama, or a schizophrenic patient missed medication and found themselves in a wrong place and time or just that act of a middle aged immigrant known sexual repeat offender. We need time to pause and review before jumping in with solutions, no matter how overwhelmingly right they seem at the time in the heat of the moment.

So not a fast-response Nation, slow but not therefore ponderous, more measured. Neither uniform across our lands. Let us not reach a one size fits all solution but rather rejoice in all our regional differences, those nuances that lie between city, town and rural communities. Far better for a wide range of permutations on a theme than one lumbering insensitive road-roller of a solution. Variety brings the opportunity for novelty, freshness that new take that might just provide the right approach. Of course it also brings mistakes, erroneous conclusions, inept or inapt, which is where we need to talk. Tell each other what we are doing, compare and contrast with others, learn which ways work best, where and how. Together we can work towards ideal solutions for all of us, modified and adjusted to suit our local needs and limitations. We can work together, not under the weight of top heavy centralised bureau's of control and regulation, but collaboratively and confidently finding our own solutions whilst listening and learning from others in similar circumstance. Now that is what I call Politics.

Consensus

Consensus is beset with contradictions. A consensus takes form as a wraith out of the mists, suddenly everyone seems to be concerned about the same topic and leans towards one convergent view. Yes of course there are always the controversial ones either with heads buried deeply in the sand or with backs firmly planted against the general trend. It is remarkable how from one day to another a topic arises and people, apart from these exceptions, all seems to hover around a consensus view. We are born with this innate desire to seek out the middle ground and conform, at a subconscious level, almost without rational monitoring.

That said, the consensus wraith does not just materialise out of the ether, the thought, the idea, the spark, the argument position is seeded. Seeded by a leader, a very lowercase leader. Just one that thinks for them self. Most people follow received ideas, just a few have, from time to time, that original thought. But then it has to be broadcast, to be put it out there, no point just being internalised. That separates the little player from the bigger player, how socially connected and the potential sphere of influence one is against another. We are not talking here about the greatness or otherwise of the 'original idea', just the social connectivity and how potentially fast it can spread out. The capital letter Leaders do not necessarily have to have original ideas, but they do need to be connected with a circle who do generate ideas. They can then use their perceived status to broadcast those worthy ideas more widely, ensuring a faster pickup and a greater chance of entering into the public conscious.


Which idea gets picked up, and which idea, though intellectually far more profound or relevant, is cast aside, is another aspect of this almost sub-conscious sensing for the common ground. Our expectation is that the strength of the argument, or the higher moral ground, or overturning a gross injustice, or a razor sharp insightfulness that cuts through the fog of confusion is what inspires these new ideas. Occasionally it is one or another or combination of these worthy ideals. More often it is just timing.  Some ideas just hit the right note, at the right time, making relevant comment, about something that is on the surface or is bubbling away just under the surface of conscious thought. It is just ripe to be picked up. It is not necessarily an amplification of, or bringing clarity to, something already out there. It often is but it can be an entirely novel idea that just happens to ripen at that time when people are ready for it. There is no better explanation. 

We are beginning to discover that the thoughts that we hold in our minds are not direct products of the conscious and therefore logical thought sequences but are a meld arrived at though sub-conscious processing of sensory imput, past experiences, memories and anticipations of social reaction. We justify the logic after the thought becomes conscious. Until that moment we have no conscious power to control the internalised processing.


There rest is all down to momentum. If broadcast widely the greater the chance it will be picked up, enter into the common domain, to be tested and balanced against all those social interactions, looking for concord, to be adopted or rejected. But from time to time a good idea hits the right or needed note, or offers a solution out of an impasse that is immediately picked up and reverberating in harmony becomes magnified and you get what we now might call a viral idea. It spreads like wild fire, it is just right for the moment.

So our would be leaders and other shapers of public opinion are all trying to plant seeds to form public opinion and swing consensus their way. We, the public, sway this way or that, trying to pick up signals from all our social interactions which way is the wind blowing today. We are the spontaneous consensus, unpredictable, contrary, perverse, whimsical, irrational but always with the majority behind us.