Voting is one of humanities addictions that is a part of their comfort zone. People use voting in many contexts as a way to "simplify" their decisions. As you may have noticed, this does not always work out for the best. Voting has become a religious superstition with many assumptions. One assumption is that the majority knows best. Another assumption is that voting always creates a better outcome than not voting. Another assumption is that large groups of people cannot possibly cooperate or make any decisions without voting.
Think of the many, many times in your life where you were in a group setting and voting was not used. Was the group able to be productive? Examples of this are abundant in every day life. For example, in my family, we have never used voting to decide anything. Yet, magically, we have thrived co-created for decades. Remember that humanity is nothing but a big family.
Another voting assumption is that if somebody is going to make a decision that affects many people, it should be voted on. The real truth is that every decision every makes affects everybody else all the time. It is just a matter of degree. This is called chaos theory or systems theory. Some decisions have more drastic effects, whereas other decisions have trivial effects. How important does a decision have to be to where it crosses the threshold where voting all of the sudden becomes necessary? It is completely arbitrary.
The assumption that large groups of people must use voting or they can't be productive and make any decisions is also flawed. How large does the group have to be before voting becomes necessary? Again it is completely arbitrary. A group of 15 people could get along just fine, but if a 16th person is added, is voting all of the sudden required?
Voting limits the manifestation possibilities that a group can create. Most of the time, a vote is between only two possible outcomes, yes or no. This is binary thinking, and it leads to almost half of the voters being disappointed or hurt by the results. I used to go to a group in Little Rock called Socrates' Cafe. The purpose of the group was to have a discussion. The way the group was structured was very limiting and constricting. At the beginning of the meeting, people would submit questions that were written on a whiteboard. Then, the group would vote on the question that must be discussed for the following two hours. The group members were expected to only talk about things that were relevant to the winning question. When the discussion began, people would raise their hands, and the leader would write their name down on a list, and the person at the top of the list would be given the floor; everyone else was expected to remain quiet. The leader could cut a person off at their own discretion if they talked to long. This structure has group think written all over it. Is there any reason why the people in the group could not just talk amongst themselves about anything they wanted? Would that not be a more pleasant experience where more learning and sharing takes place? Is a moderator really necessary for sharing and learning to occur between the members of the group? Must every word that every group member says really be heard by every other group member?
Perhaps a much more sensible way for a group to co-manifest is to have regular meetings where the members of the group share their dreams and desires with each other in a free environment. This structure-less structure is actually called a master-mind by Kevin Trudeau. There is not a specific topic in a master-mind group. They do not always talk about business and things they would like to see happen. They can relax together, play golf, eat salad, or whatever else they enjoy. The point is that they are open with each other, enjoy each other's company, and share their dreams and desires. This master-mind interaction is actually one of the most powerful ways to manifest big change in the world, especially when the members have things in common. No authority, talking feather, or even voting was necessary.
I have seen big manifestations in my life as a result of my master-mind group that I have attracted. You don't have to tell them what you want and try to pressure them into helping you manifest it. All of that comes easily and naturally, creating win-wins for everyone.
A lot of people completely give their power away to systems of voting. Have you ever heard the phrase "you didn't vote, so you can't complain"? Imagine a scenario where there is a tribe of 8 people, 4 men and 4 women. They are used to submitting proposals and voting to make many of their decisions. One day, one of the men comes up with a proposal, and the proposal reads "All of the men should be allowed to rape any of the women any time they choose with no punishment or consequences." At the next vote-off, all four of the men vote "yes" on the proposal, because they believe that it will benefit them. Three of the women vote "no" on the proposal, and the fourth woman did not vote, because she was sick in bed and did not realize what had been proposed. After the results come in, the men are pleased, and the rape-fest begins. The fourth women yells and screams during the gang rape, and the men all respond "Well you didn't vote so you can't complain." The three other women then blame the fourth victim, saying, "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU VOTE?? THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT". It is an extreme example, but it demonstrates a point. The decision was made in an entirely democratic way, and because the women had given their power and sovereignty over to a gimmicky voting mechanism, they feel like it is more fair, and that they can't do anything, because it went through the proper procedures and protocols.
The funny thing is that people victim-blame and give away their power in the context of voting all the time. They have been trained to do it since they were children. In America, every four years, people line up and vote to get butt-fucked by a new rapist. They have been trained to think that voting is a duty, and that those who don't vote are irresponsible and hate themselves. They feel no sympathy for the victims of government abuse, and they say that if you want things to change, you should vote differently or run for office. But whatever you do, do not break the law, that is a crime punishable by death. They think that voting is necessary, because they have been told that "Law and Order" are extremely valuable. Man's law is based on moral relativism and authority, the opposite of order. If the law can change one day, was it every really a law at all? Or are people just calling their actions "lawful" so that they can get away with doing whatever they want? The callousness and heartlessness that American's have towards law-breakers is no more apparent than in the drug-war. The entire lives of innocent people have been and are still being destroyed everyday by police who are "just enforcing the law". Americans largely view these badge-wearers as heros, instead of seeing them as Nazis and the foot-soldiers of evil. The cops will often tell you, "If you don't like it, talk to your representative". And this brings up another aspect of governing structures that often is entangled and works together with voting.
Many government structures, including the American democratic republic, use a combination of authority figures and voting to make decisions. People vote for representatives, and then the representatives submit proposed new laws, and they vote on them. Then the president can use his magic veto-voting power to shut down the legislatures votes. The legislature, Congress and House of Representatives, can then re-vote on the proposal and over-ride the president's vote. Later on, the Supreme Court can vote to re-interpret these laws, or deem them unconstitutional. And the jury members also vote to determine if someone is guilty or innocent.
Look how well this complicated structure of voting and authority figured has worked out for Americans? If we want to create more free and prosperous future, some of these archaic social structures and organizational addictions need to be seen for what they are and left behind.
People often think that voting becomes necessary when the group gets too large. My question is, why are you identifying with such a large group and allowing them to over-ride your free will and true morality? How can you possibly intimately know a group of that size? Are large groups like this really organically cooperating and in loving communion together, or have the members just took on the group's label as their own identify? I personally do not consider myself a member of any group, because I do not want my free will to be usurped by a bureaucratic process. I have my close, immediate circle of family and friends, who I know and love, and then casual acquantances, and then old friends and strangers, who I don't spend time with. Political affiliations other than that are completely imaginary.
A big part of the problem is that the entire earth has been corporatized and divided into millions of imaginary groups, and this structure has been elevated above common sense, universal moral law, and people's health. The corporate structure is also intimately tied in with the money system, giving certain people god-like power on earth. People often feel hopeless and powerless against this momentum and downward spiral of human unconsciousness. They have been convinced that there is no other option, and that it is impossible for people and society to exist without such abominations. "Corporations have voters, and if it works for them, it must work for me and my small group of friends, they tell themselves." Or they will say, "I can't even imagine how we would distribute resources without voting." Maybe the resources should not have been centralized into a corporate control structure in the first place. Maybe people should have taken care of themselves in a more decentralized, independent way, instead of relying on a "system" to feed, shelter, and protect them.
Humans are pretty deep into this corporate/money addiction, so what is the way out? The only way out is for more people to recognize these structures for what they are, fictions that do not serve us. These structures waste people's time and attention. Think of how much of your life has been wasted in a check-out line at the grocery store. The cashier is also wasting hours of her life every day on this useless job. The bankers waste their whole lives keeping track of the idol that we call money. Americans waste tons of time voting, petitioning, watching political debates and on all of the other religious government rituals. If people would realize that all of this stuff is unnecessary and is not accomplishing anything helpful, they could begin to imagine a way to coexist without it.
And it really isn't that complicated. Instead of voting to build a certain number of structures, we could just talk to each other about whether or not we like those structures and how many we need, and then if someone begins building them, keep a finger-on the pulse so to speak to make sure it still looks like a good idea to people. Instead of creating authoritative councils who have control of a centralized money account, we could just share our money with people we know who will do a good job.
While the corporate system exists, we will still be dealing with it here and there, but that does not mean we should adopt its values and patterns as Truth and the only way things can be done. Some outside-the-box thinking may be required, as well as some heart-based feeling and right brain intuiting. The left-brain imbalanced "Let's just vote on it" approach is obviously not the best way for humanity, and for the smaller communities that make up humanity, holographically. Common sense and compassion are more important than creating another brainless system to simplify things.
The crypto-currencies are the next iteration in humanities addiction to money, power, "systems", and voting. Many crypto-currencies have voting mechanisms built in, including bitshares, steemit, eos, and many others. While these systems may be better than the US Dollar and US Government monstrosities, they are only a step in the path to Truth, Love, and Freedom. Eventually, these idols must be recognized as such, and our attention and time should stop being thrown at them and wasted. This process will start on the individual level, and it is exiting to be a part of the process. The Great Experiment continues.
I hope you enjoyed this and feel free to provide feedback!
Very thoughtful article.
Heres a question....
Lets say you, me, and another 78 people happen to have shared access to 1 million dollars.
Lets say, i want all of it. So do at least 10 other people. A few others think we should split it, a bunch of others don't care.
Other then violence, without voting, how can this situation be resolved in a way that i personally would accept?
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
I suggest this as a possible way to fairly resolve this issue without voting or violence: Divide $1,00,000.00 by 78. Give each of the 78 $12,820.51. that would be fair in every possible sense and no voting or violence needed. In this example the only things required would be a sense of fairness and a functioning intellect. Then, since you want all of it, you can go around to each individual and ask them to give you their share. Since you state, 10 others want all of it too, you might not get all that you want but they too could go around also and ask for others to give to them.
The question, can this be resolved "in a way that you personally would accept?" Is a loaded question and indicates you may be gaming crystal spider. How could that be answered without knowing you? Are you a sane, honest, reasonable adult human being who believes in fairness? Then more than likely you would accept. But if you have a damaged heart and maybe psychopathic tendencies, then of coarse you would be unlikely to accept anything fair or rational.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Well the direct controllers of the account would have to make the final decision it sounds like. If everyone has equal control of it, youd want to avoid taking it all without asking permission, if you dont want to anger people. What I would do is go around asking people I know permission to use some of it, and give them the reason or purpose. Then let them think and get a general sense of how they feel. You could even do a vote or poll to gather data. But I wouldnt rely completely on the vote or poll, as it is not a perfect representation of all the factors. The people who dont care obiously will not miss the funds, and are not raising objections, but Id avoid using the money in a way that will hurt them, because they can become retroactively angry about it. If multiple people want some or all of it, you could discuss with each of those people and other people too to see how much general support each person’s idea has. You could even have a multi-option poll or vote to see what that process says. But again, dont use the vote or poll as the only justification, just something to factor in. The group should start to narrow down their support, so that certain ideas seem to have more excitement and support behind them. Give those ideas a proportion of the funds that is proportional to the estimated emotional support level, that way you make the least amount of people angry. The ideas which have very little support would receive very little money, although they could receive some. This approach obviously requires some right brain thinking and acting, because emotional support levels cannot be measure with instruments other than human bodys, minds, and hearts. The key would be having lots of discussion, and not acting prematurely.
This obviously would not work in a cryptocurrency, since it is all automated, and would at the very least, be difficult to model using a data structure.
But then again, currency would not be such a big deal if it weren't for people blindly obeying it and enforcing it on each other. This is the pressure that police put on people when they perform evictions and arrest people who do not pay fines and taxes. Crypto-currency alone may not be able to heal this order-following mentality that so many people are stuck in.
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit
Congratulations @crystal-spider! You have completed some achievement on Steemit and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
Award for the number of upvotes received
Click on any badge to view your own Board of Honor on SteemitBoard.
To support your work, I also upvoted your post!
For more information about SteemitBoard, click here
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOP
Downvoting a post can decrease pending rewards and make it less visible. Common reasons:
Submit