I want a vaudeville of ideas from the wise people around me I trust. I want epistemology by someone who isn't paid to sell me more goo. I'm starting a damn political party, but I refuse to own it, work for it, or give it one cent. If it tries to give me money I'll spit on it and give it to the kid down the street. If anyone ever contradicts me and makes me consternated for their opinion, I'll thank them heartily and put my sovereign thought tokens in their homemade party purse.
*If mafia wars can do it, so can we. The bidding is open for bodacious names. I'll list a few in the excerpt from one of my facebook conversations I was privileged to go on at length in:
Phillip Bunker Palin is going to split the Republican Party, though certainly not down the middle. I'll be there to start a new party once they break that barrier.
My reply:
Haven't got a name yet. I was doing some research on online political parties. Here's my first pitch gang:
[Emergent Party? Free Party? United Statesian Party? The Orange Party? The Apple Tree and Post Conglomerate? The Interforum?] -
We are volunteers, take no money, give no money, earn membership by participating in discourse, and start out just accepting that out of the politicians and policies that exist in the field we can only do our best to figure out which one sucks the least. We inform ourselves in simple, easy, religious ways and accept no definitions or purported facts unless it's been examined or wiki'ed about. I don't care if the information's name is the Associated Press or CNN - their information is selling something. But, there is a truth out there, and no matter how the myriad deciders invent or obfuscate the stories that we the people are surrounded and informed by, I know a few things, and you know a few things, and a little viral effort could easily become something tangible in a world where bra colors sweep the nation. This effort could be made transparent and affordable (all for the price of free or very nearly) by the internet and the USPS (I think there should definitely be a bi-cameral digital and analogue spine of the party). I'd place that same emphasis that churches and fraternities/sororities have - a social group with a charter outlining purpose, by-laws that are simple and flexible, and an eye for duality (here's what we are and what we aren't, here's what we believe and what we don't, here's the basic story of our contemporary history, while here is the areas we're not too sure about, etc.). We can create a network nationally that is time-consuming, has no "pay-off", no marketing or advertisement potential, and isn't created by people trying to get attention.
I have a mind to generate some kind of graph model of the proposed structure, pathways of communication, and theoretical self-correcting mechanisms (think founding fathers only with more game theory involved - this political platoon agrees on this truth through various survey while team Anchorage clashes directly with that, so the issue remains in 'undecided status' or 'outcome pending' - sort of like taking parliamentary procedure and
Fox thinks they can create a party based on their porthole information - too bad, they opened the floodgates for denial of common consensus of information from which to organize a party. Used to be people like them would have been called quacks by the intellectuals enough that even the common person would know them to be fools. The floodgate that is being opened is the sell-out of enough of the intelligentsia (perhaps more accurately the confusion of the masses of who the intelligentsia really is - to the point where they only listen to S. Palin and we only listen to The Daily Show) (Not that there's anything wrong with the Daily Show, but it illustrates my point I think). The consequence is that now we see how easy people are to win over, just assure them you know what's going on and be there to provide a constant feed of dialogue from which masses develop their political opinions. Meanwhile, here we are raising a generation of kids who don't watch TV anymore (or any less?@! HA!). A new better option will be taking over for anyone still evolving into something better instead of sinking into more infotainment or, as I sometimes call it, entermation: this new and better option is going from web page to web page looking in on those people and ideas and organizations you have cause to care about. There's still commercials; it won't break the system. But, it's just enough of a difference that the baggage of a national political organization with coffers and donors and Congressional hearings into campaign financing scandals - all that may become obsolete. Maybe not, but we can hope. Typically, in History, a thesis might read, typically that which has become more trouble than it's worth is shed like the skin of a snake while the vital efficiency of a more natural way gradually replaces what was there before.
The rudimentary structure might be something like a newsfeed and personal homepage (complete with neighbors and connections to far flung pockets of friends of neighbors) whose contents are vetted by the members, not open to the outside (or maybe by choice - a heady discussion here best headed up by someone well versed in the state of the art of social networking privacy settings etc.), though with the understanding that no pure data constitutes facts without further clash, discourse, or the automatic harmony that comes with obvious common causes (as we see with Susan G. Komen related posts on social networking sites).
Regulation within this party environment should probably be modeled after chiefdoms or seniority or something hybridized that I don't have the faculty to articulate at the moment.
Our power can only come from becoming a free and obvious alternative, generating enough numbers, signing up new voters, and eventually making impacts in local elections until we begin to gather and puppeteer our own candidates (not really puppeteer, but kind of - another heady discussion).
I did some quick research the other day and only found this blogspot posting about a national online party, but I find it lacking in outside-the-box thinking. Hopefully I'm not victim of the same trap. Here is a link:
http://nolp.blogspot.com/
Also there is an interesting phenomenon called national initiative amendment:
http://www.ni4d.us/
I like the flavor of that too.
Most of all, what I'm always left with at the end of thinking about this stuff is, to what degree do we attempt to give the latest and greatest the time needed to turn the head of such a large dragon? Could a health care amendment this year turn into a jobs bill and defense cut next year, and an education reformation and elimination of the insurance industry the next (and are the Republicans right about 'we have to give up the right to sue to get out of the insurance scam/angle? - which is my analysis of what their tort reform {torte?} is about when viewed on the level)?
Clearly there were too many parentheses and question marks in the last sentence, which is a sign that it's time for bed.
You three just became charter members and high priestesses. May the forces be with you...
[Emergent Party? Free Party? United Statesian Party? The Orange Party? The Apple Tree and Post Conglomerate? The Interforum?] -
We are volunteers, take no money, give no money, earn membership by participating in discourse, and start out just accepting that out of the politicians and policies that exist in the field we can only do our best to figure out which one sucks the least. We inform ourselves in simple, easy, religious ways and accept no definitions or purported facts unless it's been examined or wiki'ed about. I don't care if the information's name is the Associated Press or CNN - their information is selling something. But, there is a truth out there, and no matter how the myriad deciders invent or obfuscate the stories that we the people are surrounded and informed by, I know a few things, and you know a few things, and a little viral effort could easily become something tangible in a world where bra colors sweep the nation. This effort could be made transparent and affordable (all for the price of free or very nearly) by the internet and the USPS (I think there should definitely be a bi-cameral digital and analogue spine of the party). I'd place that same emphasis that churches and fraternities/sororities have - a social group with a charter outlining purpose, by-laws that are simple and flexible, and an eye for duality (here's what we are and what we aren't, here's what we believe and what we don't, here's the basic story of our contemporary history, while here is the areas we're not too sure about, etc.). We can create a network nationally that is time-consuming, has no "pay-off", no marketing or advertisement potential, and isn't created by people trying to get attention.
I have a mind to generate some kind of graph model of the proposed structure, pathways of communication, and theoretical self-correcting mechanisms (think founding fathers only with more game theory involved - this political platoon agrees on this truth through various survey while team Anchorage clashes directly with that, so the issue remains in 'undecided status' or 'outcome pending' - sort of like taking parliamentary procedure and
Fox thinks they can create a party based on their porthole information - too bad, they opened the floodgates for denial of common consensus of information from which to organize a party. Used to be people like them would have been called quacks by the intellectuals enough that even the common person would know them to be fools. The floodgate that is being opened is the sell-out of enough of the intelligentsia (perhaps more accurately the confusion of the masses of who the intelligentsia really is - to the point where they only listen to S. Palin and we only listen to The Daily Show) (Not that there's anything wrong with the Daily Show, but it illustrates my point I think). The consequence is that now we see how easy people are to win over, just assure them you know what's going on and be there to provide a constant feed of dialogue from which masses develop their political opinions. Meanwhile, here we are raising a generation of kids who don't watch TV anymore (or any less?@! HA!). A new better option will be taking over for anyone still evolving into something better instead of sinking into more infotainment or, as I sometimes call it, entermation: this new and better option is going from web page to web page looking in on those people and ideas and organizations you have cause to care about. There's still commercials; it won't break the system. But, it's just enough of a difference that the baggage of a national political organization with coffers and donors and Congressional hearings into campaign financing scandals - all that may become obsolete. Maybe not, but we can hope. Typically, in History, a thesis might read, typically that which has become more trouble than it's worth is shed like the skin of a snake while the vital efficiency of a more natural way gradually replaces what was there before.
The rudimentary structure might be something like a newsfeed and personal homepage (complete with neighbors and connections to far flung pockets of friends of neighbors) whose contents are vetted by the members, not open to the outside (or maybe by choice - a heady discussion here best headed up by someone well versed in the state of the art of social networking privacy settings etc.), though with the understanding that no pure data constitutes facts without further clash, discourse, or the automatic harmony that comes with obvious common causes (as we see with Susan G. Komen related posts on social networking sites).
Regulation within this party environment should probably be modeled after chiefdoms or seniority or something hybridized that I don't have the faculty to articulate at the moment.
Our power can only come from becoming a free and obvious alternative, generating enough numbers, signing up new voters, and eventually making impacts in local elections until we begin to gather and puppeteer our own candidates (not really puppeteer, but kind of - another heady discussion).
I did some quick research the other day and only found this blogspot posting about a national online party, but I find it lacking in outside-the-box thinking. Hopefully I'm not victim of the same trap. Here is a link:
http://nolp.blogspot.com/
Also there is an interesting phenomenon called national initiative amendment:
http://www.ni4d.us/
I like the flavor of that too.
Most of all, what I'm always left with at the end of thinking about this stuff is, to what degree do we attempt to give the latest and greatest the time needed to turn the head of such a large dragon? Could a health care amendment this year turn into a jobs bill and defense cut next year, and an education reformation and elimination of the insurance industry the next (and are the Republicans right about 'we have to give up the right to sue to get out of the insurance scam/angle? - which is my analysis of what their tort reform {torte?} is about when viewed on the level)?
Clearly there were too many parentheses and question marks in the last sentence, which is a sign that it's time for bed.
You three just became charter members and high priestesses. May the forces be with you...
