Indulge me, if you will, while I belabour an apparently whimsical metaphor.
Forms of parliamentary representative democracy have propelled nations
like Great Britain and the United States on their economic, societal and
cultural journeys through the history of recent centuries. None would deny that
the machineries powering and steering these ‘vehicles of statehood’ have
evolved since the days of the horse and cart and stagecoach. Some would say
that it was roughly in the middle of the twentieth century that the
functionality of governance, already a complex concatenation of legislative,
judicial and executive mechanisms, was best ‘fit for purpose’, relatively well
aligned and balanced with the perceived and experienced needs and desires of
the largest majority of the governed populations.
Then almost imperceptibly the wheels started to fall off.
Madeleine Albright, former US Secretary of State: “You cannot
simply Tweet your way to democracy, prosperity, and peace. You need an
effective government and you need economic growth. These days, people
are talking to their governments using 21st century technology, while
governments listen on 20th century technology and respond with 19th century
policies.” While elected assemblies did their best to cope with dogmas
and ideologies, many of them outdated, as the millennium came ever closer
science and technology was disrupting all that had gone before. To revert to
the automotive analogy, as the end of the old century approached we allowed our
rulers to perpetuate their fondness for swooping tail fins and vintage white-wall
tyres. Parliamentarians and the legions comprising the ‘political elite’, the
Westminster and Washington establishments, had retreated to their garages.
The English comedian author, and
activist Russell Brand visited the Houses of Parliament and concluded
that “The whole joint is a deeply encoded temple of hegemonic power.” Jeremy
Paxman, reflecting on his notorious interview with the firebrand Brand, conceded
that “We ignore the democratic process at our peril. People died for the
right to choose their government, because otherwise power is wielded by the rich
and strong for the benefit of the rich and strong. Russell Brand has never
voted, because he finds the process irrelevant. I can understand that… the
whole green-bench pantomime in Westminster looks a remote and self-important
echo chamber.” The same can be said of Capitol Hill.
We as citizens have all too complacently allowed the democratic process
to remain unreformed, unmodernised, stuck in another century. A modern
automobile may have more than a hundred distinct modular electronic
control units embedded within its frame,
involving nigh on a hundred million lines of computer code. Self-driving
cars are already a reality, with Artificial Intelligence replacing the sentient
driver. And yet those elected to represent us (according to whatever arcane
system is retained in the nation in question) have not woken to the possibility
that as designated drivers of the chariots of state they too, slumped on those
green benches, might be replaced. There might be an end to the perquisites and
privileges they enjoy as a matter of routine, any alteration of the comfortable
status quo equated with the pathetic braying of the deplorable plebeians and
written off as meaningless.
Naomi Klein: “Here is what we need to understand: a hell of a lot of
people are in pain. Under neoliberal policies of deregulation, privatisation,
austerity and corporate trade, their living standards have declined
precipitously. They have lost jobs. They have lost pensions. They have lost
much of the safety net that used to make these losses less frightening. They see
a future for their kids even worse than their precarious present.” In
their quandary many will inevitably welcome the offer of a simple solution, a ‘Brexit’
or a ‘Trump’. Hubristic exploitation of controversy, a confident presentation
of counter-factual proposition (if not downright untruths), may sway voters in
the short term. Bombastic anti-establishment rhetoric will sound as if it holds
the promise of a way ahead. But the path proposed by the noisy populists will
be no smooth superhighway but a primitive and treacherous track through
uncharted terrain.
Next-generation autos that can think for themselves have clear
advantages. Flesh-and-blood drivers get drunk or drowsy, daydream or get
distracted by mobile phones and squabbling kids. Autonomous cars detect
their surroundings using ultra-sophisticated mapping systems, they are able
able to communicate with each other. Connected vehicles provide safety warnings
that alert drivers of potentially difficult conditions such as impending
collisions, icy roads and dangerous curves. Sophisticated connectivity isn’t
limited to the vehicle itself. The more communicative and integrated approach uses
smart technologies deliver not only enhanced security but also to optimize
efficiency and sustainability.
“The planet is being destroyed, we are creating an underclass, we’re
exploiting poor people all over the world, and the genuine legitimate problems
of the people are not being addressed by our political class,” Naomi Klein
warns. With an antediluvian political machinery, possibly corrupt but certainly
indolent and suffering from cognitive impairment, determined to drive ahead but
with their gaze fixed on the rear-view mirror, it seems doubtful whether any destination
truly appealing to modern society as a whole can be reached safely.
Extra-parliamentary opposition movements, with nodes of protest and
activism networked and intercommunicating using smart technologies could be an
answer as the next leap forward towards governance
reform. The networks might be supported by persistent
benevolent AI, plotting the way ahead, aggregating, parsing and validating
verifiable data, ‘applying the brakes’ when needed. It would be a bold and overdue
step beyond the dangerous sclerosis afflicting
parliamentary representative democracy. Can algorithms be taught to filibuster?
More seriously, can an intransigent push-back of the future be tolerated any
longer?
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