
What Is To Be Done? It is time to consider alternate systems of governance - rbanffy
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gyynwm/barrett-brown-what-is-to-be-done
======
devmunchies
Or, you know, decrease the size of the federal government and then give the
states enough power to function much like their own countries.

why must we always focus towards a stronger federal government? The most
functional countries seem to all have a small population (e.g. Norway,
Sweden).

Whether you prefer socialism or capitalism, we can all see that neither work
optimally with a mega-large population. Breaking up power would break up
corruption and make it more manageable.

~~~
sverige
Maybe that will be the result of the author's master plan of organizing
insurrection through the power of software and the internet is successful. But
he doesn't say what happens after the insurrection, so there's no real
alternative offered other than chaos once the system breaks down. It's hard to
predict what system will arise out of the ashes if he is successful.

It's kind of sad, really. It feels like I'm back in the '90s reading Usenet
posts on alt.society.anarchy or alt.politics.usa.

~~~
evanlivingston
I don't see it as sad. The most important step in making the world a better
place is using our imaginations. I think this is a core part of radical
systems of thought. Anarchists would invite even you to imagine what would
come next rather than a minority of them dictating a system that is
prescribed.

I think it's also a problematic to percieve the system braking down as
resulting in chaos. It's the desire of people for peace that preserves peace,
not the system.

Also, saying the system isn't choatic now is misleading. The chaos is just
both hidden and displaced.

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peatmoss
The title "What is to be Done" is, of course, the English translation of Что
Делать. The title was originally used by Chernashevsky and later Vladimir
Lenin—the latter making the call for revolution explicit.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_To_Be_Done%3F](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_Is_To_Be_Done%3F)

~~~
an27
"Communism needs one more try"

Anyone wants to take a figurative stab at who or what's behind this movement?

~~~
solotronics
the dark lord soros and above him the red shields

~~~
an27
Citation needed.

Seriously though, bring me evidence, please. I hear this circulated a lot but
I don't know if there's something there or if it's pravda.

I'm not joining the Church of Anti-Zionism but I'm more than willing to
believe actual evidence. I lost the mainstream belief that Jews are such
oppressed pure little angels when I read about the history of Israel.

------
paulpauper
_Twenty-five years later, two former Nixon administration officials, Donald
Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, managed to take firm control of yet another
presidential administration. This one, too, was marked by revelations of
unconstitutional and criminal acts, including torture, mass surveillance, the
unprecedented negligence of emergency preparedness functions, the politically
motivated firings of U.S. attorneys, and the most disastrous military
engagements since Vietnam. The second of these two wars, incidentally, was
originally billed as the natural outgrowth of Iraq 's intransigence. A memo
would later become public confirming the suspicion that it was in fact planned
from the start by Rumsfeld, with the ostensible issue of WMDs having been
listed as one of several convenient pretexts by which this might be
accomplished._

Hmm the article seems rater one-sided in its political bias, omitting possible
corruption by the 'left'. Compared to the rest of the world, America ranks
pretty low in terms of corruption, so as bad as it seems it could be a lot
worse.

~~~
evanlivingston
Sorry, America ranks low in corruption? How are you quantifying that? Does
international covert intervention count?

~~~
koenigdavidmj
Here, you don't have to bribe a low-level functionary simply to do their job
(give you a birth certificate for your kid, for instance). Our corruption is
only at the political level---still a problem, but different than the third
world.

~~~
evanlivingston
Which do you think is better?

~~~
JumpCrisscross
Pretty much every study on societal stability, social measures and economic
development says the American kind is better. (Search Google Scholar for well-
cited intercountry studies of corruption.)

~~~
evanlivingston
It would be interesting to look at those countries that rank poorly and look
at the effects of American global liberalism and try to understand how those
countries are affected by the American kind of corruption.

------
clarkevans
We certainly need a better way to organize politically. Listing to John
Oilver's episode on congressional fundraising
([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ylomy1Aw9Hk))
leads me to believe that our representatives aren't particularly accountable
to the people they represent.

That said, this [https://pursuanceproject.org/](https://pursuanceproject.org/)
seems a bit technical, a bit more technical than what's needed? Couldn't we
just take standard democratic representation down a level? Replicate and
automate a pattern is already known to work, at a more granular level, rather
than reinventing a brand new structure?

Let's say a house representative agreed to cast their votes reflecting the
preferences of a majority of "block champions" in their district. Perhaps
these block leaders having some sort of rank based upon the number of people
who endorse them? Those same champions could also reflect their preferences
for local and state issues as well. In this way, the representative would use
the preferences of the champions to justify their vote. The nice thing about
this proposal is that it could be implemented and would be compatible with our
existing governmental structures.

~~~
visarga
> These block leaders having some sort of rank based upon the number of people
> who endorse them? Those same champions could also reflect their preferences
> for local and state issues as well.

I prefer a system with perfect balance: sortition. Just randomly select 1000
people from US and they can take a decision (like a jury). Disband, repeat. It
doesn't even require parties, elections and funding. It's hard to control by
lobbyists because every time different people are chosen.

If the decision is technical, then there should be a preparation period before
voting, where presentations be held in front of the legislators.

~~~
clarkevans
Why is my comment and this thoughtful response being downvoted?

EDIT: and this one too? -3 and counting?

~~~
rbanffy
That's a good question. Russian bots, perhaps?

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eli_gottlieb
I'm not sure I have too much to say here. The article comes off as incredibly
smug, and through its use of an eight-pointed star, downright _heretical_ ;-).

The author needs to be _made aware_ that the anarchistic, chaotically
liberatory vision of Anonymous morphed, over the past few years, into
/r/The_Donald. The networked people are not the ones fighting
authoritarianism; they're the ones supporting it.

~~~
watwut
Is that a guess or there is actually evidence that the groups are composed of
the same people?

~~~
psyc
Anon grew out of 4chan 10 years ago. The_Donald is (loosely, I think)
associated with /pol. The assertion that Anonymous turned into TD is
absolutely absurd. Critical thinking depends on making distinctions, not
squinting and lumping as much as you can into a bucket.

~~~
eli_gottlieb
The point is not that Anon and /pol/ are the same group. The point is that
there's nothing _structural_ about anonymous online fora that _necessarily_
gives rise to a politics centered around personal rights and freedoms. It can
just as easily go to mob authoritarianism as to individualism.

------
panic
_Ten years later, many now regard the Bush Administration with actual
nostalgia.

And 10 years from today, will we look back to 2017 with the same longing?_

Why is every discussion of American politics dominated by the President and
their administration? Congress is the part of government that effects long-
lasting change, not the President. That's the part of government we need to be
paying the most attention to.

~~~
jdpedrie
> Congress is the part of government that effects long-lasting change, not the
> President.

I don't think that's true at all. Almost all lasting change is accomplished by
executive action taken in the regulatory and administrative state. Even in
areas where Congress does act, it often only provides broad outlines, leaving
the specifics of implementation up to the bureaucratic rule making process.

------
alexandercrohde
I think unfortunately some great ideas are coming out of the mouth of a figure
who makes himself incredibly unlikable and may ultimately backfire in the
court of public opinion (e.g. Al Gore, Assange). [I say unlikable because the
sourcing seems dubious, the author talks about himself too much, and there's
something too emotional and insufficiently analytical about his style]

However maybe it's good these points are out there. For the severity of
Nixon's crimes (attempted destruction of democracy) how are the most severe
charges not appropriate (i.e. death)? It really does stink of a fundamentally
broken system.

------
monochromatic
"I don't like the president, so it's time to scrap the whole system."

Ok.

~~~
jessaustin
Whatever one's opinion of Trump, he has convinced all Democrats and many
Republicans that the executive has too much power. Who could have imagined
that, a couple of years ago? I say we should strike while the iron's hot!

(Apparently he's also convinced them that war with Russia is preferable to war
with North Korea: I'm not sure what to make of that.)

------
cvsh
How big of an ego do you have to have to name your monthly column "The
Firstname Lastname Review of Arts & Letters & Civil Strife"

------
jlebrech
move to a desert and start your own community.

------
leroy_masochist
TLDR:

\- The guy who got caught hacking Stratfor is about to get out of jail, and
wrote this article

\- He believes that there is a widespread and insidious government conspiracy
against him that involves members of both the Obama and Trump administrations,
as well as Peter Thiel and Palantir

\- He is in the process of building a virtual network of superfriends,
comprised mostly of people affiliated with Anonymous and the European Pirate
Parties, that will expose wrongdoing by governments and corporations

~~~
eli_gottlieb
>\- He believes that there is a widespread and insidious government conspiracy
against him that involves members of both the Obama and Trump administrations,
as well as Peter Thiel and Palantir

What, against him personally, or just the usual ongoing surveillance state
stuff?

