SEVEN PRECEPTS FOR A BETTER MILLENIUM

Part Three

CONSENT AND CONSENSUS - Various Enlightenment treatises, including the American Declaration of Independence, make frequent mention of "the consent of the governed." Electoral politics and majority rule subvert at all times a sizable minority opinion, and frequently contradict the opinion of the majority itself. The marshalling of the resources of 100 per cent of a nation, or province, or municipality, on the basis of decisions made by a tiny fraction of the population (i.e., elected officials) is, far too frequently, a gross distortion of the political will.

At the time the current nation-states were being revolutionized into representative democracies, it was difficult to tally even a hundred thousand votes from a few hundred miles away. Present-day technology makes it possible to tally a hundred million votes in a matter of seconds and to communicate the results instantaneously to and from anywhere on the planet. Furthermore, it is now possible to collect, collate, and communicate the concerns, objections, and proposals of individual citizens on a nationwide scale and on a daily basis. True democracy demands that communities implement such consensus-gathering systems, not just as opinion polls, but as actual direct-action legislative tools.