What If We Had A Different Non-Political Form of Representative Government

I have been thinking about what a non-political from of representative government might look like and whether it could be considered democratic or not.

One model came to mind, a Council One Hundred that would set policy, provide Cabinet Ministers and oversee the government administration.

With 50 peoples representatives chosen randomly in a process similar to jurors that would serve four year terms with 50% changing every two years to provide continuity.

• 10 youth representatives comprised of citizens 12 to 24.
• 20 general representatives representing citizens 25 to 64.
• 10 elders representatives representing citizens over 65
• 10 representatives of non-citizen permanent residents

And with another 50 selected representatives chosen by organizations representing various areas of knowledge.

• 10 representatives of indigenous peoples
• 10 representatives of experts in the physical sciences, social sciences and humanities
• 10 representative of workers organizations selected by organized labour
• 10 representatives of social movements including environmental organizations
• 10 representatives of small business and self employed workers

The big question is whether this would be more or less representative, more or less democratic, more or less beneficial to the people than our current system.

Postscript

Immediately after writing this post I realized this would make an interesting configuration for a reformed Senate.

 

Fernbank Road Pond Photo Versions

Slideshow of photos taken along the Fernbank Road Pond in Stittsville in July 2023 with my Panasonic Lumix FZ100 camera and edited with Photoshop Elements 2023, Simply Good Pictures 5, Franzis Color Projects 6 Professional and Franzis Black & White Projects 6 Professional.

 

(View in YouTube to view full screen)

Imagining A Post Capitalist World

This is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis but an imagining of some of the features of a post capitalist world.

OK lets get this over with first. The first thing we will notice is the numbers we use to measure the success of a capitalist economy, GDP, GNP and economic growth will look bad. That is because the goals of the new economy will not be excessive production, consumption, energy waste and unsustainable growth. The new economy will be based on people not stuff. While our so-called standard of living will decline our quality of life will increase.

Because of higher minimum wages and a Guaranteed Basic Income everyone will have at least a comfortable modest life with adequate housing and all their basic needs met because there are enough resources to provide this when there is not excessive inequality and waste by the excessively wealthy.

Excessive inequality will be eliminated because of an aggressive progressive tax system based on the principle that everyone should contribute to the society/economy based on their ability.

Everyone, not just the very wealthy, will finally benefit from the use of machines to increase productivity and most drudge work will now be done by machines. The effect will be that everyone will have reduced working hours for a shorter period of their life. Work will no longer be a necessity to survive but something people crave for the fulfillment it brings to their lives.

Because of a societal decision all work requiring intelligence or decision making will be reserved for human beings.

Elimination of the exploitative capitalist practice of producing goods in low wage countries will see the elimination of excessive wasted energy transporting goods as most food will be produced within 100 kilometres of where it is consumed and other goods within 500 kilometres.

With increased time for themselves education will be an important part of everyone’s life and as with health care, treated as a public good and paid for collectively. Arts and culture, theatre and music, will be emphasized with the emphasis on local artists and productions (rather than overpriced “superstars”) as well as outdoor recreation.

Small businesses, where the owner earns his income by working in the business, will be encouraged and supported. For large enterprises, ownership and control of the means of production (factories, computer facilities, etc) will reside with the workers producing the products or providing the services, most often through co-operatives, except for public services like education, health care and public utilities where control and ownership will reside with the people through their democratically elected governments. All workers will have an effective, not just theoretical, right to join a union and bargain collectively.

The overall philosophy of the society/economy will be "from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs".

The stages of corporate social media

Corporate social media essentially goes through three stages.

The first is new, free and wonderful, lots of functionality, user friendly and free, or at least pretending to be free. It’s purpose is to build a customer/product base (as the customer is the product).

The second stage is monetization. The purpose is to make money so once the free loss leader period is over measures to create revenue are introduced. These are usually things the users can live with and are introduced along with measures to make the customer dependent on the product.

Once that is achieved we move into stage three, equivalent to the final stage of capitalism. We move from earning a fair profit to profit maximization with no regard for the user, the assumption being that by this time the user is convinced their very existence is dependent on the product, also known as the Facebook effect.

With the introduction of Brand X, EvilElon is clearly telling us he is moving Twitter into Stage Three as capitalism moves into it’s final stage.

What Are Family Values Anyway

So what are these family values the right is always going on about. I am not talking about specific religious or cultural values but the values all families share.

It seems there is one common thread and that is that families care about and take care of each other. They do not ask if other family members are worthy of being cared for they just do it. When children are young and helpless they care for them, and when they become older and need it their children care for them. There are no financial transactions involved here but everyone is expected to contribute what they can to the family and the family ensures their needs are met.

I have been trying to find a way that says this that does not sound like “from each according to their ability to each according to their needs” but that is essentially it. Yes Virginia, family values are communism.

Should We Bring Back The Lord’s Day Act

No I am not going all religious on you This would be more of a Day for Humanity, a day that would not belong to the billionaires and millionaires but to the common people and the community.

This would be a day where all profit making activities would be banned except for activities necessary for essential public utilities and community and social services. Large scale profit making entertainment (including sports) would be banned except for local community based activities.

Perhaps most importantly all social media would shut down for the day and being constantly plugged into devices would be prohibited. Disable texting too and make people actually talk to each other

This would be a day for families of all kinds and the community to come together as people, not just as customers (or contacts), a day when our interactions with each other would not be transactional, a day that would proudly not contribute to the so called economy or the GDP or GNP.

A Day for Humanity, once a week.

The Thing About Religious Fundamentalists

The thing About religious fundamentalists is that they expect you to base your life and your belief system and morality on religious texts written three thousand years ago, before:
 
- The Renaissance (15th and 16th Centuries CE)

- The Scientific Revolution (1543-1687 CE)

- The Enlightenment/Age of Reason (17th & 18th Centuries CE)

- Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (1859 CE)

- The Discovery of DNA (1869 CE, genetic role 1943 CE, double-helix structure 1953 CE)

- The Information Age (1970–present CE)

- Even before The Dark Ages (5th to 10th Century CE) and the life of their saviour Jesus Christ (4 BCE – 30/33 CE).

Wisdom requires knowledge, yet they would have people establish their moral framework and live their lives as if all human learning and knowledge of the last two thousand years did not exist.

How Did We Get Here

Let me tell you a story about my early days working for the House of Commons in a non-partisan position serving all Members of Parliament and all Canadians. While we all had our own political opinions, that ranged from right to left, we all worked professionally and in a non- partisan manner to serve the House. And we all got along.

On one particular day we were on what could best be called a self-improvement course. I suppose there was money left in the professional development budget and somebody knew somebody, but that is a different discussion. This course veered into a particular direction that was critical of social programs and public health care suggesting they enabled the lazy. Many of us expressed our opposition to these seemingly American inspired ideas during the seminar. During our first break I was discussing this with a colleague, who happened to be the most right wing member of our staff from conservative Alberta, and I, from NDP stronghold Sudbury, was the most left wing staff member, and we both agreed the seminar was a waste of time and we both decided to go back to our desks and do real work for the rest of the seminar.

The point being that while we had different political outlooks we shared the same Canadian values that all our colleagues did.

There was a time, not really that long ago in the political history of our country, when people on the left respected, and even admired, right wing politicians like John Diefenbaker, Bill Davis, Flora MacDonald and Joe Clark and people on the right felt the same way about politicians like Tommy Douglas, Stanley Knowles and Ed Broadbent. There was a time when we held two Quebec referendums and national debates on Quebec separation in a respectful manner without the level of hatred that is expressed today. This was a time when Canadians had their party preferences but did not fear for their country if their favoured party lost.

I can think of a particular American multi-millionaire and another American billionaire that can share some of the blame for what is happening in Canada today. But the blame also lies with too many of us who have decided to use our ability to control the information we receive to only see what we have already chosen to believe and only listen to those we have chosen to listen to. Unfortunately this leaves too many people in a position to easily fall prey to disinformation and manipulation. But that still does not explain the level of real hatred we see expressed in our political discourse today, particularly against the current Prime Minister for everything from policy decisions to the colour of socks he might choose to wear.

How did we get here.

Postscript

It is blatantly obvious that the vast majority of the political hate (and bigotry) we are seeing today is coming from one end of the political spectrum. It is time for the centre right decide who their values better align with, the far right or the centre, and a time for them to decide who and what they want to be aligned with.

Annual Report on Kanata South Pathways Deterioration, Spring 2023

Another year has gone by and it is time to report again on the deterioration of the Bridlewood and Glen Cairn pathways in Kanata.

Bridlewood 

 

 

Glen Cairn

More Fun With Photo Editing

I imagine most people have a favourite photo editor that they use for all their photo editing. Sometimes I like to mix it up and use different software for the different abilities each has. I will usually save my photos as lossless PNGs when transferring between different programs to avoid compression degradation.

Original Photo Taken with Panasonic Lumix FZ100 Camera

Cropped to 16X9 with JPEGCrops 

Auto Optimized with Simply Good Pictures

Red Channel Enhanced with Photoshop Elements 2023

 

Kaleidoscope Effect Applied with Franzis Color Projects