S.P.R.E.A.D. #08 | 26 OCT 2019 | NOV 5 ELECTION DISCUSSION w/ Steven

Opening Remarks:

Let me say a few remarks about why we are doing this – long story short, we do this because people got sick and tired of being told what to do by people who, at the end of the day, don’t seem all that much brighter than other people. Of course, even those exceptionally gifted or charismatic people don’t remain so forever. Mao led the revolutionaries to victory, was a brilliant general and tactician, but after he was in power for 2 or 3 decades, told everyone to kill sparrows and other pests resulting in . anywhere from 15 – 30 million deaths.

Similar disaster strikes when people are installed in power based on their class or birthright. So, even if you’re smart, power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Not to mention the entrenched structure of worshipping an individual tends to result in suck ups becoming advisors and sucking up becomes more important than good policy.

So over the long course of human history, besides, of course, the famous democracy of athens, and besides golden ages of aristocracies or monarchies, the world has been moving towards democracy. People have wanted a say in government and the shaping of their society – they have fought and died for the right to not be oppressed. Today is the high point for democracy, but it is definitely not guaranteed to continue.

But not only is having a say in our society and communities important for not being oppressed. We are ganna take the next step here, and think not only about avoiding oppression, but in shaping visions of utopia. At every point in history, social gains have looked impossible – things such as a minimum wage, women’s right to vote or even participate in society as equals, even the prohibition on child labor have seemed like ridiculous utopian ideas, until somehow the people in power were convinced to move society towards a place where people dont have to suffer for no reason.

Maybe if we take a step back we may notice that the world’s 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50%, or in america, the top wealthiest 1% possess 40% of the nation’s wealth; the bottom 80% own 7%, or that productivity has skyrocketed exponentially while the quality of life has stagnated in same time period. That we are staring automation in the face and all the potential freedoms that could come from that, yet we are still talking about large employment numbers as the ideal. And who is charged with tracking and acting on these abstract macro trends that affect us all, while everyone is doing their own – We might collectively think about where society should go and how our government can begin to prepare society for it.

So we’re here to learn about what government is doing, what our leaders have put forward for us to approve or disapprove. We’re also here to choose individuals to fill positions and execute the duties of their offices. And we’re here to do our small part in shaping the direction of our community.

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So voting and staying informed is the least we can do as citizens. Simply voting every election is a relatively small role to play in a democratic community. You’ll have noticed that on each measure, since we’re all smart people, we will normally have many more questions arise, and we know how little information we have about the state of things and how our city is run and whether or not the decisions made each day throughout city government is moving in a direction agreeable to them and their kids.

Yes, we should vote and think about how these and future propositions should affect our lives and our interests, but we might also think of the seventh generation principle. Apparently the Iroquois People had a principle that all decisions made today must benefit their children seven generations into the future.