Change means ability to change, right?
I’ve been on Medium for six years, promoting Tiered Democratic Governance (TDG).
Early in my Medium sojourn, I left a comment on a political writer’s article. That comment dovetailed into teaching about my TDG. She did not appreciate that comment as it seemed I was trying to sell a book — and there was some truth to that. I took a mental note not to respond to her articles anymore, respecting her wishes.
Her articles occasionally showed up in my feed. Sometimes I took a look, sometimes a clap, but never a response.
In a recent article, she closed an article with this question:
How the hell do we create a charter of rules that will prevent humanity from sinking into a morass of its own making — without creating yet another fictitious god if we don’t keep to them?
While this article was more on religion than politics, but the “sinking into a morass” has political implications as well. I decided to break my vow of silence with this writer. So I left a little promo about how the TDG could “make rules with integrity.”
She did remember me and was more cordial than our last encounter. I’ll just pull out a couple of quotes about she thought about the TDG:
I can also think of a million solutions. So can many others. The real issue is having the power to implement them. Until one finds a way of doing that, ideas are ten a penny.
Getting people motivated to do what one wants to do only works when one has power. People follow power.
My debater’s instinct kicked in. I could quickly see how to refute these comments. But I didn’t think she would take kindly to my “attacks.” So, I refrained.
Regardless, I think her line of thinking would represent the thinking of many others who have spurned the TDG as a possible solution.
My Refutation
The key word in these comments is “power.” The writer is implying that power is necessary to effect change. So here are my three points:
First, the suggestion of acquiring power to effect change, I should seek power. So my first step would be to join the political party closest to my current inclination. There I would get experience and contacts. Second, I would maneuver my way to win the internal election for the party candidate. The third step would be to win the general election. However, mentioning the TDG in this journey would likely mean that I would be described as “unelected.” So I have to keep my TDG mission under my hat.
Once I become an elected politician, then I would be in a position to promote the TDG. However elected politicians have many balls to juggle — and 80-hour workweeks. Trying to promote the TDG would take away from the important work of today’s politician. If I spend only 2% of my time promoting for the TDG, I will be losing influence in the party. Less influence means not much tangible TDG movement. Because my peers think I am wasting 2% of my time, forces will arrange themselves for me to not be elected in the next internal party election. In essence, using the path of power to implement the TDG is a Catch 22 approach: gaining power to promote the TDG eventually means losing that power. This is one reason why I have always said the TDG needs to be built outside the current system.
Second, the political writer is not exactly a power person herself. Yet she is writing articles for Medium, supposedly trying to change the world to her better version. She did not believe I had the power, yet she seems to be “working” as if she has that power.
Yes, she could claim that she has the support of thousands of similar thinkers. So that makes her work “right” and my work “wrong.” It had been at least four years since I last dialogued with her. I haven’t seen any sign of her and her many allies’ power having any effect. Should I mention that Mr. Trump got elected for a second time?
Third, I will bring up the women’s suffragette movement of more than a century ago. These activists had no formal political power in their day. They did not even have a majority of women on their side. Had they waited for the male legislators to give them permission to start, we would still be waiting. Yet this small minority started, persevered, and continued to work together.
All progress today can be attributed to those activists who bucked the trend. Should not the TDG have a similar path to buck trends to build the democracy we so want?
To summarize, “power” is not necessary. I have always said that the TDG needs only 1% of citizens to start it off. All great social movements had started with a similar initial following.
If we wait for the power brokers to change democracy for our benefit, we will be waiting for a long time.
Published on Medium 2025
TDG Elections at the Higher Tiers
