Mukt 7 years ago
#Brexit has revealed quite a lot of hypocrisy going around the concept of #democracy. For instance, many young Europeans have opined that people above a certain age must not be allowed to vote in democracy. Then there are those hypocrites who claim to respect the democratic process but not the democratic outcome of #Brexit.

In the comments, I attempt to discuss how wrong these opinions are foundationally.
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Replies

  • Joe 7 years ago
    I wish I had the money to do so. I get the idea though.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    If the dip in pricing is worrying you @Joe, then my financial advice would puzzle you even more: buy more pound assets. Buy more shares of your own company.

    Today, while the prices are down.
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  • Joe 7 years ago
    It's not long term interests. It is a simply reaction to the world as I woke up to it this morning. My small amount of money is worth less. The company which I work for is worth less. These are facts not scaremongering.

    The same goes for all the out voters there money is also worth less.

    What we do about this situation has nothing to do with democracy. That has already spoken.

    I want to know how we address these issues.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    @Joe your position is that of someone whose long term interests are adversely affected by democratic outcome.

    It is going to take time to address it.
    I'd be answering it after finishing off some work IRL.
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  • Joe 7 years ago
    A lot of things are only coming to light this morning. The rest of the world is NOT responding the way most people were hoping. This is what people are attacking. Not the decision, not the process, but the what is happening already. Prime minister steps down, Germany has warned of consequences. This is what we should be addressing.
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  • Joe 7 years ago
    I'm not sure the will to change things is the same as living with those changes. Wanting to be out of Europe is one thing. Living in a world outside of Europe is another. We have no guarantees what will happen. There was no way to know. So ultimately that makes an out vote a shot in the dark. I completely respect the decision. Just because we are out now doesn't mean I can't continue thinking we should have been in. Does not mean I disrespect democracy, far from it.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The very democratic process that these hypocrites choose to defend while discounting human will, is a product of human will.

    I'd have liked to dismiss these people as jesters or irresponsible nobodies. But some them are neither. They are political stooges to whom their political ends justify means. Nothing else holds value. That is how they can give lip service to democracy while demolishing its foundations.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The importance of this will of people for humanity( no matter how it arises, no matter how deterministic or predictable it is), can only be underestimated.

    I make no exaggeration in saying that to belittle will of the people is to belittle humanity, its achievements, its past, present and future. For all these things have been forged (and will be formed) through an interplay of human choices to whatever question is presented to us humans.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The will of people is the ability of people to choose for themselves, individually and collectively. Philosophers near and far in history have declared not only that that is the thing, or one of the things that makes us human but that it is one of the most beautiful things humans possess.

    Of late, philosophical thought has found that this will of ours is the thing that makes us different from machines. Indeed better than machines. That if machines get this will, they'd supercede us!

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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    Recall the three parts of a democratic procedure from my first comment above. To lose faith in a democratic outcome means losing faith from at least of the three: the question, the will of the people or the process itself.

    Since these gentlemen and ladies have already cleared the process and there is hardly anything unclear about the question these are directly questioning the third component - the will of the people.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    I do not think I have done a philosophically thorough job here, but I have debunked the most common arguments against old voters.

    Now, we proceed to the second part before addressing @Joe's concern. The second part is about the hypocrites having faith in the democratic process but not in the democratic outcome.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The most popular argument against old voters is that - the vote is about future and old voters do not have a future or something meaning this in different words.

    Not only old people have a future (some of them might live a bit less long than some younger people, with no way of knowing individually) but soon the old in EU will outnumber the young. This is literally because the young are stupid enough not to reproduce adequately.

    The future is old. The young chose it to be that way.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The best argument to block the aged from voting is argument from symmetry - since children are not allowed to vote, so must the elderly. I haven't actually come across tweeting this, but it is the best argument logically and I need to adress it.

    The kids, the madmen and (in certain places) the jailed are prohibited to vote simply because it is assumed that overwhelming majority of them cannot sufficiently comprehend the question at stake to be able to answer it. The elderly do not belong here
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  • Joe 7 years ago
    I agree that every body should be able to vote! Regardless of anything. I however do believe people have to take responsibility for which way they do vote though. There is a lot of crap going around about "independence day" for the UK. Which is NOT the case. If we didn't already have independence then we wouldn't have been allowed this referendum. Responsibility is something an awful lot do not consider.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    Then again, if will of the people is to be filtered via lense of age, why stop at age? How about letting only those with IQ 100+ vote (yes, yes. I know you have been exposed to propaganda that IQ is humbug and all, but neither am I discussing that here nor it makes any difference to my point).

    Why not restrict voting to graduates? Or to graduates of STEM fields? Or just to lawyers? Or to pyschologists - after all they are the ones in the know of secrets of media propaganda and better it!
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The will of the people, in a democracy, includes will of all people without distinction of ability, wealth, power, education, gender or sex.

    How would the young people feel if the "oldies" were to say that people under 55 should not be allowed to vote because they haven't raised kids to completion and do not know shit about taking responsibility? For the record, this is a better reason than the one certain young people are giving.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The question of #Brexit was fairly well articulated. It concerned the future of people of United Kingdom and was appropriately posed to the people.

    To say that certain number of eligible people must not be eligible because of their age is to deny will of these otherwise eligible people, which in turn is to dehumanize them because of their age. The noun that describes this is #ageism. It runs parallel to sexism or racism and must be critized and fought against for same reasons.
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  • Mukt 7 years ago
    The purpose of a democracy is to decide answer to a declared question from amongst listed choices by letting the people individually choose whatever they feel is most appropriate for them.

    Thus, there are three parts of the democratic process:
    1. *The question* to which answer is being sought,
    2. The *will of the people*, and
    3. The *democratic process* through which will of the people goes through to reveal the answer.
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