Re: chaos baby

["Bradley D. Moore" <brad.moore@circlecity.net>]

[: hacktivism :]

C'est vrai!  (pardon my bad french - I'm american...)

Also see Rousseau's comments on the "ideal" democratic example of  Geneva -
entirely based on the idea that SIZE (smaller == better) is of critical
importance to a functioning, healthy democracy.  Granted, he was kind of
kissing up at the time, having been recently banned from Geneva.  Still,
Rousseau is widely acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of democratic
political theory, and his observations are worth noting.  The common implied
axiom is that a true feeling of community is a prerequisite to a working
democracy.  The theory then is that feelings of community are inversely
proportional to the size of a given body politic.

But how can an "efficiently" sized community affect a functional democracy
WITHOUT geographic proximity?  The Internet is a wonderful thing, BUT an
"efficiently" sized community composed of members strewn across the globe
(e.g. modern-day 'net citizens) faces unique challenges that don't come into
play when you consider "right-sizing" democratic community around a
geographic center.  So community spirit, as it were, seems to be a function
of geographic proximity.  So while the 'net may be useful for facilitating
the communications BETWEEN various democratic societies, it seems at first
glance that it can never constitute a democratic society per se.  If you
cannot build a community that is real to the touch, then even a reduction in
community size will not dispel the sur/unreal feeling of disconnectedness so
prevalent in our NEW and IMPROVED KING-SIZED democracy.

Thoughts?
----
Bradley D. Moore, CNE, CCNA, CCDA
brad.moore@circlecity.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nicolas" <nicolas.bodinaux@tvd.be>
To: <hacktivism@tao.ca>
Sent: Monday, November 13, 2000 10:06 PM
Subject: Re: chaos baby
> Well the democracy can't work in massive community like we know actualy, but
> it will work by itself on little community. Our massive community (states)


[: hacktivism :]
[: for unsubscribe instructions or list info consult the list FAQ :]
[: http://hacktivism.tao.ca/ :]