Voting, abstention, and political rituals
Okay I started this thread like this (I'm not sure why):
Anthropologically speaking, voting is a ritual act (so, incidentally, is pressing 'Like').
Among the main functions of rituals are the indexical / indicative.
so
"When you vote or don't vote, what are you indicating, to whom?"
and
Self-indicatively,
"In choosing to vote or abstain, what are you saying about yourself, to yourself (and/or others?)"
And now for some actual context:
[with deep gratitude to the late Roy Rappaport for this ground-shifting (epoch-shifting?) book, 'Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity' (amazon link) ]
According to Rappaport, a crucial aspect of public rituals is that in the fact of their happening or not happening, an array of complex social and ecological variables are summarised in a binary way.
I think Rappaport is relevant here because of connections he makes to cybernetic theory (and by extension systems theory). - is the Loomio Community familiar with this kind of stuff?
I’m trying to be concise, and clarify my own thinking; I’m not deliberately trying to be cryptic - honest! ;)
The ‘Making of Humanity’ in his book title serves double meaning:
‘ritual and religion’ is how we got here, it’s how our ape-like ancestors became human;
and
‘ritual and religion’ (anthropologically understood) play a role, post Modernity, in the production of the positive value of “Humanity”/“humaneness”.
Ricardo Araújo Sat 14 Dec 2013 1:00PM
"In voting or not voting, what are you indicating, to whom?"
What question is this??!?
Robert Guthrie Sat 14 Dec 2013 10:32PM
Nobody knows.. It could be any number of things:
I'm too busy (your case)
I'm too confused
I don't like any of the options..
and more..
Voting alone can easily fail to capture a collective feeling
John Graham Sat 14 Dec 2013 11:21PM
I’ve edited the context panel and the questions, for (hopefully) clarity, and to reflect that to consciously choose not to vote, is to abstain - itself an act of political participation. (Political oblivion, disorganisation and other priorities are separate issues)
John Graham Sat 14 Dec 2013 11:24PM
@ricardoaraujo I haven't made that first question much easier, I'm afraid... To 'indicate' is to 'point out'.
It's a very open question and requires a personal response.
I don't have 'the' answer.
One answer might be this, one of Billy Connolly's best jokes:
"Don't vote for the bastards, it only encourages them".
Sorry that probably doesn't answer your question!!!
Alanna Irving Sun 15 Dec 2013 9:34AM
I see a big difference in actively abstaining (like hitting abstain on Loomio and saying why) versus passively not participating. One problem I see with traditional voting systems is there's no way to distinguish the two. You can't tell the difference between someone who doesn't vote out of considered opposition to all the candidates, or the political system as a while, and someone who simply doesn't care.
John Graham Mon 16 Dec 2013 9:28PM
Hi @alanna , yes I agree formal abstention is a great step forward.
However, as you’ve possibly already thought about, it doesn’t entirely remove the ‘participation rate interpretation’ problem.
For example, my first proposal here had a formal participation rate of 2/15 (both abstaining!). It may not have been rocket science, but it did require interpretation.
John Graham Mon 16 Dec 2013 9:32PM
I just deleted a comment because I moved most of its' contents to the context box.
I'm still not sure if everyone is notified when I edit the context box? I'm done for now anyway.
Richard D. Bartlett Mon 16 Dec 2013 9:50PM
@johngraham nobody is notified when you edit the context box. There's just the note here in the discussion log: "John Graham changed the discussion description
21 minutes ago"
Alanna Irving Mon 16 Dec 2013 10:09PM
@johngraham often times when you get low engagement or a lot of abstentions on a proposal, it's a sign that you need to examine the proposal itself - is it unclear? is it the wrong time to make the decision? are there other steps that need to be taken before the group will be ready to decide that issue? is the group unclear about what decision making actually means for its context (as in, does it actually have the power to make the decision)? are people uncomfortable stating a position due to social factors or feeling unsafe? etc etc etc
John Graham · Sat 14 Dec 2013 12:30AM
Here in New Zealand, a citizens-initiated referendum has just been and gone - and incredibly (to myself) I didn't get around to mailing in my vote!!
Well, I have shifted house twice this week... so I guess the fact of my non-participation indicates (amongst other things) that I've had a busy few weeks. The general election next year will be harder to miss.