Two Dragons

Flocks of susurrating starlings sometimes look like dragons.

And flocks, herds and tribes are deathless things.

Cultures thereby accumulate knowledge.

They can be a bit robotic, though:

     Freedom has, as a matter of fact, given us two parties, which compete for our votes. Individuals can choose to vote for one of them, or to waste their votes on other candidates, or not even vote at all. They can also apply to enter the parties. If they suit a party, they will do well within it if they dedicate themselves to performing well by its standards. Or they can leave the party, at will. All that freedom serves to maintain the culture of the party. The parties persist, each position filled by some appropriate person.

     And as they compete with each other, they evolve, in their own way. They carry us with them as they evolve in an essentially mechanical way. They are a bit like a blue dragon and a red dragon, fighting over who gets to appoint our leader; or scapegoat? The parties compete for significant numbers of votes, but each vote is relatively insignificant. How can we feel responsible for what our representatives do? And yet, we are responsible for obeying the laws they make. And we are a democracy. Does the buck not stop with us?

     Could we make our parties more representative, if more of us joined them? Or would that tend to make our country even more divided? Perhaps we should get ourselves a more proportional system; then we could join, or at least vote for, a wider range of parties. If we do not, will the two parties move mechanically, in ways that we hardly understand, toward something even less representative? If so, then one way or another, we will be getting a different system. Surely should at least think about voting for a transitional Liberal government.

     The people are all, collectively, responsible for the form of their democracy, for voting within that system, for the outcome of that voting, and for what their leaders do. But most people in our democracies think that what is done in their name is not their fault. Most of us did not vote for the people in charge. But everyone feels that their vote is relatively insignificant. And the outcome of an election really does have little or nothing to do with any particular vote. It is as though none of the voters are responsible. Whereas, we are all responsible.