I am going to preface this by saying that this was shared with me by a friend and I am still trying to get my head wrapped around it. I am not an expert or even well read on the subject but do believe that the voting systems in Canada need to change. I post in the interest of building the discussion in this community.
<Quote> I like single transferrable vote (STV), but it’s unlikely to catch on because it needs number crunching in the backend to apportion the excess votes to (hopefully) improve proportionality. I can see it being accused of corruption by the fact and critical-thinking challenged demographic.
Baden-Württemberg solves that by saying that every riding has two members, one who wins the popular vote, and one who is selected from the runners-up in a manner that best enhances proportionality, but still focuses on the high vote earners.
Mixed member proportional representation (MMR) is too easily gamed by parties to embed unelectable party hacks/loyalists (as experienced in NZ). </Quote>
To the “brainwashing our kids” crowd, my stance is that the kids can decide for themselves if it’s brainwashing, as long as we aren’t actually doing that, and is instead simply equipping them with the ability to think on their own. So I’m not bothered by them, and I think we should make that narrative clear enough, with experts in and out of power to have their say, and the rest can complain all they want. I do understand that that doesn’t always work well in our political climate; just look at the carbon tax, but if we hold ourselves back just because some crowd might fight back, and essentially do nothing, based on the trajectory where things are going, I fear that we’re only sleepwalking ourselves into ruin. This applies to adopting PR as well.
In other words, I’d rather we say that we’ve tried to do things that we have good reasons to believe are good and may actually steer us in the right direction, than go for something that might please more people but is no different from our current trajectory.
Don’t forget, to many children a property. The purpose of procreation is to ensure that your own stupid, narrow sighted, ill-informed views propagate across centuries. Brutal isn’t it. I understand that doing something is better than nothing but at the same time you have to allow that the illusion of progress is perhaps more dangerous. It’s a conundrum that I fear will be our demise. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this but I’m too stuck in my malaise to be convinced that anyone can see the forest in the trees. Cheers
I won’t argue against your pessimistic views on life and humanity; I too sometimes think that way. It can be somewhat comforting, maybe in a bit of a twisted way, but it can make us feel a bit better. But I will say that it’s not helpful to others and yourself to keep thinking like so, about how a lot of people just seem too stupid, or that they are born into stupidity and are thus conditioned into thinking that stupidity is the norm, and that there is not real progress.
Real progress is being made, even now, despite all the chaos that we know of. The fact that people can talk about these problems, internationally and openly, despite some threats from those who despise it, is unthinkable 70 years ago, or even 100 years ago, and further. If that’s not progress, I don’t know what is.
History is repeating itself, but it’s not without its differences and variations.
And despair isn’t the end. Where there is despair, there is hope.
While I’m somewhat dejected that I can’t convince you to open up, I hope it becomes part of what you would think about again in the future.
Best wishes there
I didn’t mean to emphasize stupid in any way. I think rejection of the current system was inevitable but they fall for lies that are allowed to go unchallenged in a meaningful way. I don’t have a problem with optimism but I think ignoring the realities of the end game do us no favours. I would prefer a mix of the two with proper representation of a plan to survive what will come. Lets hope electoral reform actually happens in a way that truly serves the people and not the party. Thanks for your thoughts on all this.