this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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What can we do to re-shape society for the better? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by testman@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml
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If top of the society is immoral psychopaths with power, and most of the society is composed of people with good intentions, then there is not much hope for "beta uprising" until things go way beyond point of recovery, because powerful psychopaths will not let their power get taken away.

Not sure if this is just evolutionary biology, but this cycle of psychopaths at the top has been going on since when, at least ancient Egypt. And in all these thousands of years, the system that enables this cycle got way more reinforced than it got dismantled.

So is it maybe better idea to put benevolent people's energy towards designing and preparing a new societal system that will have built-in mechanisms for preventing corruption and malevolence? "prepare" as in get ready to implement for when the current messed up system is about to grind to a halt and collapse? Well, it would be best to figure out how to go full Benevolent Theseusβ„’ by replacing parts of currently failing system with the corruption-proof ones.

What are some resources related to this topic? Recearch on societal dynamics, designing political systems, examples of similar revolutions that already happened, etc. Post any links that you consider relevant

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[–] flamingo_pinyata@sopuli.xyz 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Getting rid of apathy is the most important step. Too many people say "I'm not interested in politics".

Politics is everything, it shouldn't be considered as a legitimate choice to stay away from it.

[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holy shit, I wish I could upvote this more than once.

In the US we live in a participatory democracy. If the citizens of this country don't actively participate in how the government functions, then all is lost.

One of the biggest tools that fascists use to subvert the will of the people is turn off various groups from caring about what is going on. They spread misinformation about this and lies about that. They act like things can get fixed with a snap of a leader's fingers, but that's not how reality works, so they complain about why we still have problems.

With that comes endless conspiracies and in general a mistrust and break down of government. And it all kind of steamrolls because the fewer people who follow the news and politics closely, the easier to let corruption go unchallenged.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I have to say, I'm pretty sure the US approach of seeming hyper democracy (voting for the local garbage men boss, sheriffs, etc) is actually detrimental to democracy in practice. You're flooded with choices that you can't reasonably be expected to be able to actually make an informed decision about. Simply because of time constraints, you can't study garbage policy issues 4h a day, every day, after work.

[–] Hazdaz@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Maybe don't take your knowledge of US politics from TVs and movies. It's not that complicated and that's one of the reasons why there are political parties - it is pretty reasonable to assume that if one is registered as a Democrat then they follow most democratic party ideals. And if they are registered as a Republican, then they are a worthless piece of shit. It makes picking your candidate easier even ot is an imperfect system.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

So what is the point of voting, if the candidates are pre selected like that anyway? It's no different from voting, say, the city council once and then letting them decide.

The current system is the simulation of a democracy.