I have long contemplated how technology and democracy are going to interact in the near future. Online voting and petitions are perhaps the two biggest modifications to democracy that have come about as a result of the digital age, at least so far. I would argue, however, that these are the first tiny simmering bubbles on what shall soon become a roiling boil of activity, when not only democracy but also governance is carried out through the internet.
The first case I want to discuss is this: https://neighborland.com/
Neighborland is, to oversimplify it, a digital town hall, where members of a community can post ideas and complaints for their locality and supposedly coordinate actions to make the changes they desire. It is a simple and natural idea.
It, or something like it, will change the world more than most people today can possibly imagine.
Modern America has become a distanced nation. We do not engage strangers on the street or stop to chat with people we do not know, and we even avoid answer phone calls from unknown numbers. "If it's important they can leave a message," I'm sure we have all thought or said from time to time. I think that this is killing us as a people. We do not have to interact with people with whom we do not wish to, and that means people of different socioeconomic statuses, people of different political and religious persuasions, people of different ages, races, or interests. Even if they live right next door. With the aid of the internet we can interact with people because of our choosing, not out of necessity, and shut out that which does not interest or directly concern us.
Voting is down. Civic engagement is low. The "civil societies" that Alexis de Tocqueville identified as the linchpin of American democracy are rusting away, leaving us a fragmented and hollow people. I don't think I need to get into what this is doing to the higher levels of governance and political polarization and deadlock.
To my knowledge, no one thinks this is a good trend, and the question is what to do about it.
I think Neighborland might be the first glimmer of a way out.
What Neighborland provides is a way to take a community that has become hollow and scattered and reforge it online. Modern life does not facilitate easy gatherings of entire cities to decide things. The founding fathers realized that it was impossible for direct democracy to work in a nation of as many as a few hundred thousand people - now almost every state is above the population of the early US, and dozens of cities are as well. How do you orchestrate a city hall in a city of a million people? It's physically impossible.
But what Neighborland demonstrates is that it is not digitally impossible. There is no limit to the number of citizens that can be engaged in civic affairs via a website or via email. What Neighborland provides is a way to solve problems that have been, in recent years, delegated to the few who stay engaged - it returns to the people the power that has leaked from the people as a result of modernity and apathy. The depressed, the sociopath, the workaholic, the nerd, the stay-at-homer, the graveyard-shifter, the "indoorsman", to group all of these people into one title, the many many millions of modern Americans who for one reason or another cannot come to city hall meetings or vote in every election or stay abreast of every issue due to rational ignorance can, at their convenience and on their time, stay engaged and active in the goings-on of their community. Zoning, city planning, entrepreneurship, and community needs can all be directed and discussed in a forum that is equally accessible to all, that does not require someone to be good at public speaking or have the balls to to stand in front of a crowd to get his issue heard.
For now, though, Neighborland is only a proxy or a counterpart to the political decisions, the voting, the city council meeting. It is not a replacement; it is a mostly private sector endeavor.
What fascinates me is what happens in the next step: when it replaces the city hall. What happens when a city of a million people can engage in an exercise of direct democracy, when every issue, instead of coming before a small city council, is instead voted on by the entire city? What if anyone could submit anything and have it voted up and down by the community?
Democracy happens. Real democracy. And real democracy means real change for the real good of the whole of the people.
I hope to address this in blog posts to come, because it's f***ing exciting.
No comments:
Post a Comment