Jim Moore’s blog: Innovation, Strategy, Public Policy

1.  In any case, politicians don’t represent you.  Politicians act on
behalf of big
campaign
contributors and major political parties.  The major political parties in
turn act on behalf of the same big contributors.  Unless you are a
billionaire, you can’t give enough money to have any influence. 
So don’t waste your time and money hoping for politicians to represent
you. They won’t.

2.  Your vote does not matter.  Rarely an election is so close that your vote might help elect one
person over another–not often, but sometimes.  But that does not
matter because neither person represents you (see item #1,
above).  Even that letter you
wrote to your congressperson did not matter.  Did you think it
did?  What evidence do
you have?

3.  But don’t despair.  Politicians don’t matter.  The really important problems facing our
society are not helped or hurt by what politicians say or do. 
Consider the problems that really matter:  improving education for our
kids, strengthening our families and communities,
encouraging kindness and care, promoting social and economic
innovation, saving the environment, reducing racism, sexism,
ethnocentrism and other stereotyping of individuals.  None of
these are helped by the actions of “political representatives.”  The
most vital contributions in American history are large social and
spiritual movements, not who won this or that
election.

4. Thus, voting is a false virtue. 
Voting is a relatively meaningless activity dressed up as a
virtue.  Voting encourages you to feel you
have taken action, when you have not.  Voting undermines personal
creativity by providing an easy, socially-sanctioned, and ineffective
action that salves our conscience and provides an illusion of
participation but does not have any other effect.

5.  An emphasis on voting degrades communication in society.  Political arguments that are aimed at influencing voting are almost always propoganda–and
thus degrade citizen discussion and reflection.  Swing-state
targeting,
polling, calculated language and image, spinning:  Over a
billion dollars was spent on political advertising during the latest US
political season.  Did it enhance true national dialogue on
matters that
make a difference to our future?  Do we as a nation now better
agree on the key facts of
our situation? Do those with diverse views better understand and
respect each other?  The emphasis on propoganda is inherent in a
representational democracy, because all the politician needs to do is
to get you to vote for him or her–the politician does not need to
prepare you for deeper participation, or maintain communication with
you.  He or she only needs your vote on a certain day, and the
incentives to manipulate you to get your vote are very great.

6.  There is no way to fix vote-targeted political communication by regulation.  
Public discourse in many other fields is regulated by prohibitions against fraud, slander, etc.  It is
well-known that advertising campaigns run by politicians are among the
most misleading of all advertising.  There is no meaningful way to
regulate campaigns without impairing free political speech–and this is
rightly judged a more critical value than honesty.  But this
ensures
trouble.  Product and service
advertisers incur liability if they lie.  Politicians do
not.  Fraud–in the form of false promises–is illegal in product
and service promotion.  False promises are the stuff of life for
politicians, who incur no direct consequences for making promises not
kept, and face no criminal penalties.  The way to change this
situation is to make votes and the process of influencing voting less
important, and chose other forms of leadership and participation as
ways to improve our society.

7.  The Internet does not improve traditional politics. 
Internet voting does not change the limitations of
representative government. It can make voting faster and easier, but it
does not change the problem: Working through representatives is an
obsolete way to address our common challenges and opportunities.

Internet political messaging and Internet
fundraising can get messages out and raise lots of money–but they have
not proven effective at deepening dialogue.  Centralized Internet
campaigning can be corrosive to the spirit of the online
community, because politics trades in evasiveness and dishonesty.
Candor and honesty are central to dialogue on the web.

Internet blogging and grassroots organizing has proven much better at
stimulating dialogue, mostly by hooking up far flung members of a
community and making communication fun and easy.  But I would
argue that this is not an example of online tools improving traditional
representative democracy, but rather of online tools helping people
come together to help themselves.

If you are interested in using technology for social
change, I increasingly believe it makes sense to put your efforts directly into your passions, rather than into
trying to influence voting.  Technological passions that
have already had an impact include RSS, global blogging and enhanced
free
speech, micro-e-commerce, peer-to-peer music and video sharing. These
are just a few.

8.  Representative democracy is necessary but far from sufficient. 
Representative democracy is better than dictatorship–and is necessary
but not sufficient for a progressive society.  But representative
democracy is obsolete as a way to organize society and come together to
address our most vital challenges.  Direct action is here now.

The opposite of representative democracy is not “direct democracy.”
Direct democracy is an oxymoron.  There is nothing direct about
electing a representative and hoping that he or she will take action on
your behalf.  The opposite of representative democracy is direct
citizen action.  Let’s focus on improving our abilities individually and as groups to take effective citizen action.

9.  You matter.  You matter most.  And you are enabled to matter more each day. 
You are already an “army of one” without joining any government’s
army.  Your creative action is enabled by widespread public
education,  free speech
and other civil rights, the Internet, travel, globalization, creative
capitalism and iPods.  Entrepreneurship, blogging, home study and
home schooling are all examples of this trend.  You do have the
power.  But your power is not the power to
elect or influence political representatives.  No, you don’t have
that power, as explained in item #2.  But you have a better
power.  You have the power to create.

10. You can use your energy for higher and more effective pursuits than voting.  Voting and the process of campaigning takes personal time and
money from you, and reduce your ability to invest in more effective
ways.  Do something direct instead.  Hire kids to clean up a
park.  Plant some trees (the latest Nobel Peace Prize was won by a
woman who plants trees to help improve the environment in Africa).
Write that book, record that song.

The era of citizen power is
upon us.  You have the power
to come together with other people to shape the world directly.  Have fun.  Don’t get distracted
from your mission:  your mission is creative, satisfying, and more likely to be effective the more you work at it directly.

11. The nonvoter party is global.  Given that we don’t vote, we do
not need to be sanctioned by current political jurisdictions.  We
can be active all over the world, without concern for national
boundaries and rules.  Imagine..