Communication Circuit

Something to understand

Friday is just another day and 13 is just another number. 666 is also just another number in the row. Victor looks astonished on his amazing hand and its fingers. Maths is about thinking, not believing.

The Voters’ Dilemma

 

The idea of a parliamentary system is that our legislature will make good decisions. To do so the elected officials must cooperate. But often they work against each other instead.

Some people can easy cooperate while other are dominant and just want to win influence. When you vote, you select a politician who think like you.

To gain your own influence you tend to choose a candidate who are stubborn and never give up rather than someone who can cooperate. But a crowd of stubborn people with different opinions can hardly agree on anything. Considered as a group they are the worst possible decision-makers. This group create the Nash equilibrium in politics.

We could solve the problem by not choosing alpha males or females but instead appoint representatives who can work together. The problem is that everyone must do it at the same time; otherwise we will give those who support a dominant candidate very much influence. This is the voters’ dilemma.

A Sample from the little horse…

My dear friend Jim Stark have translated chapter 10 in the book “The little horse from Athens” into english. The book will tell how we launched an electronic direct democratic party and took a seat in the City Council of Vallentuna, Sweden. The entire e-book will be published in English in early 2012. Hope you will enjoy chapter 10 and tell your friends about it. Here is the sample:

chapter-10-in-english

PS.
The happy face above belongs to my son Victor. He is mentally retarded but I am very proud of him. His joy inspires me. Merry X-mas!

A Book is Awaiting

 

The story of how demoex was born will become an e-book in english and print-on-demand around the turn 2011/2012. The title will be “The little Horse from Athens”.

The democracy experiment started year 2000 and demoex became a political party with mandatory power in 2002. Since then we have been trying to have the political parties in Vallentuna to cooperate, which seems to be their last will.

Half of the book’s proceeds will fund the developing of an international tool for web-based direct democracy. We will try to create a democratic counterpart to Wikipedia, a site that can be used for free in all nations by all languages in order to debate and vote on political issues.

The Dangerous Idea of Self-actualization

Mass murderer Anders Breivik, Oslo, wanted to reach the top of Maslow’s famous hierarchy of needs. The pyramid shape creates the impression that the top is most worth pursuing, because it is hardest to get there. Top step of the pyramid is self-actualization.

Self-actualization is a vague idea that leads people to become self-centered. The idea tells us to aspire to something we already have. Like other mammals, we slowly becomes self-actualized during pregnancy. You, who can read this, are as actual as one can be. You are alive, that’s all.

The idea of ​​self-actualization is based on a confusion between people and ideas. Ideas can be potential or actual. The only thing we can actualize is a idea – by realizing it – but we are no ideas. Ideas can be communicated, but people cannot. We have symbols that represent us – name and PIN – but we are not these symbols. We are living matter, flesh and blood.

Anders Breivik wanted to become a politician because media elevates our politicians into ideological stars. They let the political leader’s personify the ideas, thereby creating a confusion of person and ideas that leads to emotional polarization – love, hate and populism. Social media increases this tension even more.

Breivik was inspired on the Internet. He wanted to be a modern Templar fighting Islam. On YouTube, he learned to make explosives. The target was the immigrant-friendly Norwegian Labour Party, which he believed had betrayed the country. Anders Breivik killed 93 persons and his name will be spread across the world. But it doesn’t mean he has reached a higher self-actualization.

Self-actualization is a dangerous idea, making us focus on agents instead of their actions. Anders Breivik believed that self-actualization was to have his name rewritten a million times. But a terrorist who creates political history at the same moment as he carries out his mass murder has not actualized himself, he has just realized a massacre.

The concept of democratic GDP

Three hundred years after the scientific revolution we have not yet agreed on standardized definitions and measurements for one of society’s most central concepts: democracy. The word’s original meaning is that the society is controlled by the people. Over time the concept of democracy has become more general and imprecise, in the style of the concept economics.

But in contrast to economic science, the democratic research has not developed standardized mathematical concepts and theories. Possibly because the requirement that science should be kept objective and free of value. The concept of democracy is overloaded and the battle that has occurred has made it difficult to develop a neutral conceptual theory.

The economy has thus come to dominate the social sciences, with quantitative concepts supposed objectivity. Money does not smell, a dollar is a dollar. Every purchase expresses a valuation, but the financial transactions can be handled without concern of the underlying values because mathematics is regarded as objective.

Growth is an economic concept that has acquired great importance. World countries seeks steady and sound economic growth. The popular revolutions in the Arab spring seems to have democratic growth as target, but without a mathematical standard we cannot estimate the degree of democratic change. As the economy theories and key indicators have been used successfully, we should develop analogue concepts for democracy.

The equivalent to money in the democratic system are the votes. A vote is a vote, regardless of what it used to. The starting point of democracy is that all voices – like money – is worth the same. We think that everyone should have the right to buy basically whatever they want. However, there is a struggle about what issues you should have the right to vote on and who should have the right to vote.

The economics are based on the concept of Gross Domestic Product, GDP. Similarly, democratic GDP is calculated by adding the sum of all votes in society at national, regional and municipal levels – both in the general elections and in parliament, county and municipal assemblies.

General elections are not held every year. The calculation must be done over the term of office where all votes counts, both from voters and elected representatives. The more people take part in democratic voting and the more questions we decide on together, the higher the country’s democratic GDP.

Solar activity and democratic activism

The sun’s energy affects us. Revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt coincides with the growth of a new solar cycle. When solar activity increases people will people become more energetic. Solar Cycle Varations are between 9-12 years long. The number of sunspots was a record low in 2008. Then began our current solar cycle 24, which is expected to reach its peak between 2012-2014.

Russian astronomer A. L. Chizhevsky observed in the early 1900′s a statistical correlation between political events and solar activity. He found that when a sun spot cycle is on the rise people also tend to be more active.

When solar activity increases people seem to be more susceptible to influence, leading to increased political activity of good and evil. Solar cycle 20, for example, reached its peak between 1967-1969, while the Prague Spring and the May 1968 protest in Paris. On the other hand, the Vietnam War escalated and Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in the same period.

Internet and social media means that the conditions for democratic movements today are better than ever, but there is a risk that the improved communication is used to spread fear and propaganda. The effect of solar cycle 24 is still uncertain. How it unfolds probably depends on which kind of messages will have the greatest media attention. Let the friendly sunshine in.

Photo: Courtesy NASA / JPL-Caltech

Demand independent media in Libya

 

A war goes on in Libya – we assume. Gadaffi’s regime has opposed the independent press in an attempt to stop information from leaking out. If Gadaffi’s oppressive tactic succeeds, the free world loses influence.

The camera has become the new world’s weapon. The camera is a tool of peace, democracy and justice. It does not kill, but it can be used to reveal killers. In the transition to a more democratic and peaceful society, the camera plays a key role.

The UN should demand to send independent observers to document in Libya. The UN should also make very clear to the combatants that they will not be protected by laws of war. All crimes committed in the civil war should be punished.

If only one of the warring parties refuse to let independent observers make the war documentation, so the international community must not hesitate to help the other side – mainly by using satellites and Global Hawks to document the crime against humanity. Documentation is a virtue in itself. Documentation helps the innocent part, but  those who are guilty have everything to lose.

Gadaffi and the Libyan autonomy

The world news reports of killing and violence against protesters in Libya, but Muammar Gadaffi says he will not give up. When Gadaffi threatens the people he takes the role of Father of the Nation who raise his disobedient children.

The idea that the state should reflect the family hierarchy comes from Aristotle and is called paternalism. Paternalism is a bad idea which means that the parents’ relation to their children is a model for the States’ relationship to citizens. Parents restrict children’s autonomy. According to paternalism a rebellious citizen is like a disobedient children.

Autonomy is the foundation of a free society. Both the people and the nations should be free to decide over themselves if they do not infringe someone else’s autonomy, but that is exactly what is happening in Libya. Muammar Gadaffi seems to think he himself is the nation, but he is only a human being. When a dictator orders violence against his own citizens, the international community should intervene and abolish the country’s sovereignty until the dictator is overthrown.