Javert
Volunteer Moderator
We've discussed this idea of voting licenses before on the Brexit thread.
The problem with this is that although it might seem attractive at first, it's basically a step away from democracy - saying that you can only vote if you can prove that you are interested in politics. The other big problem is, who gets to decide what the test is for getting a voting license? Whoever it is, they will be open to accusations of bias etc. Lobby groups would accuse the people setting this license test as being biased and that the test is designed to only select the "right type of people".
You might even get people similar to you saying "I refuse to apply for a voting license because I don't believe in the type of government that this test implies we should have".
Edit - some people would even argue the opposite and say that you have to prove that you are not involved in politics or history to vote, otherwise you will have vested interests and ideas.
Maybe rather than this, we should start from the point that if we have arrived at a moment in history where more than 50% of people are so angry that they will, when given the opportunity, vote for any major change rather than stick with the status quo, even when being told by all experts that the change will be rationally worse, there is clearly a major major problem in society.
Perhaps this problem cannot be solved by rationality, science and enlightenment on its own because the factors driving it are emotional, not rational, and therefore the arguments cannot be defeated and minds changed purely by rational argument.
I'm not sure if you have read this article - it's long but I found it was definitely worth a read. This guy has also written a book that's just been published expanding on these ideas.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/08/welcome-age-anger-brexit-trump
Of course I'm not saying I agree 100% with all of this. For one thing, he doesn't provide any easy answers, and for another, like many commentators he appears to be lumping all the people who voted Trump / Brexit and suchlike into one bucket.
However TLDR, his main thrust is that the events we are seeing cannot be understood or countered using the paradigms that we have all grown up with of economic growth, rational enlightenment, and facts. Fundamentally this anger is driven by emotional discontent with the current system, and about a visceral need to feel equal in importance in society (rather than just a theoretical equality by having the same vote as everyone else).
That's not to say that rationality is not important - more that a total focus on it to the disregard of all else fails to recognize that human beings don't think (or vote) using rationality or facts alone, and this probably cannot be changed.
The problem with this is that although it might seem attractive at first, it's basically a step away from democracy - saying that you can only vote if you can prove that you are interested in politics. The other big problem is, who gets to decide what the test is for getting a voting license? Whoever it is, they will be open to accusations of bias etc. Lobby groups would accuse the people setting this license test as being biased and that the test is designed to only select the "right type of people".
You might even get people similar to you saying "I refuse to apply for a voting license because I don't believe in the type of government that this test implies we should have".
Edit - some people would even argue the opposite and say that you have to prove that you are not involved in politics or history to vote, otherwise you will have vested interests and ideas.
Maybe rather than this, we should start from the point that if we have arrived at a moment in history where more than 50% of people are so angry that they will, when given the opportunity, vote for any major change rather than stick with the status quo, even when being told by all experts that the change will be rationally worse, there is clearly a major major problem in society.
Perhaps this problem cannot be solved by rationality, science and enlightenment on its own because the factors driving it are emotional, not rational, and therefore the arguments cannot be defeated and minds changed purely by rational argument.
I'm not sure if you have read this article - it's long but I found it was definitely worth a read. This guy has also written a book that's just been published expanding on these ideas.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/08/welcome-age-anger-brexit-trump
Of course I'm not saying I agree 100% with all of this. For one thing, he doesn't provide any easy answers, and for another, like many commentators he appears to be lumping all the people who voted Trump / Brexit and suchlike into one bucket.
However TLDR, his main thrust is that the events we are seeing cannot be understood or countered using the paradigms that we have all grown up with of economic growth, rational enlightenment, and facts. Fundamentally this anger is driven by emotional discontent with the current system, and about a visceral need to feel equal in importance in society (rather than just a theoretical equality by having the same vote as everyone else).
That's not to say that rationality is not important - more that a total focus on it to the disregard of all else fails to recognize that human beings don't think (or vote) using rationality or facts alone, and this probably cannot be changed.
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