Look, I am all for making friends and building community response, but, as a solution to the apocalypse described, this lacks any realistic practical actions to take. How exactly do ordinary guardian readers "start building a deliberative, participatory democracy" where politicians failed? - ThreadSky

emmalbriant.bsky.social • 5 days ago

Look, I am all for making friends and building community response, but, as a solution to the apocalypse described, this lacks any realistic practical actions to take. How exactly do ordinary guardian readers "start building a deliberative, participatory democracy" where politicians failed?

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zephhowell.bsky.social•5 days ago

It assumes people will engage, cooperate, and scale grassroots efforts into functional governance, ignoring reality—apathy, self-interest, and local dysfunction. "No one has our backs, so build community" is contradictory nonsense. Idealism without pragmatism is just wishful thinking.

emmalbriant.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yes. It also ignores the fact that. - even WITH a solid, workable plan... it takes time for friendships, community resources and participatory democracy to produce stable and prosperous societies, let alone solutions for 'nuclear proliferation' and 'antibiotic resistance'

zephhowell.bsky.social•5 days ago

Absolutely - I don't think most western societies are even close to being ready for this kind of approach. Expecting it to work locally, let alone globally, is a huge stretch.

zephhowell.bsky.social•5 days ago

Micro-democratic enclaves? Sure, if you want to create a breeding ground for resource wars. The rich will just become local warlords, swallowing weaker enclaves, and any semblance of democracy will be crushed under a pile of cash and self-interest. Almost like we need a national level government.

rwreports.bsky.social•4 days ago

by repeatedly calling their representatives

drnomyn.bsky.social•5 days ago

I've had this discussion with Home Affairs. People are civically engaged when they may not realise. So being members of sporting clubs and participating in Parents and Teacher organisations is part of localised participatory democracy. Politicians have nothing to do with it.

emmalbriant.bsky.social•5 days ago

Yes and as great as that is, it is something that hasn't prevented our current crisis from emerging and I see no clear plan for how it will help us get to a point where we tackle 'nuclear proliferation' or 'antibiotic resistance'.

drnomyn.bsky.social•5 days ago

The problem is for it is that we're not actually doing it. Volunteering is down 60% since the pandemic. This means local areas fracture and polarise and don't organise. Organising around an idea (like a union) is so much more difficult than around an activity. It's the latter we used to be good at.

emmalbriant.bsky.social•5 days ago

Well it sounds like know a lot about what we need to know right now - you could write a vastly more helpful and actionable essay on what people can do than this well meaning but vague essay. I am sure.

emmalbriant.bsky.social•5 days ago

I just was expecting so much more in terms of practical actionable advice - since the title promises to tell us all 'how to survive' current apocalyptic events.

drnomyn.bsky.social•5 days ago

Why thank you. The principals we interviewed said that even the school has begun to face inwards, implementing policies to "keep the community at bay". In the olden days a principal was on the board of the racing club, not cos they liked racing, but because they owned the only photocopier in town.

emmalbriant.bsky.social•5 days ago

How interesting!!

drnomyn.bsky.social•5 days ago

Btw....I actually don't know how to write for the Grauniad otherwise I would 😅🤣

drnomyn.bsky.social•5 days ago

The fact we don't "sit around eating oranges at the netball" means it's easier to make a decision that you couldn't have made if you have to look in the eye of your fellow netball parent.

mercerrigby.bsky.social•4 days ago

One step can be local. Work to create something, be part of
programmatic or legislative reform. My county has citizen advisory boards for many departments, and public
planning processes. There at advocate groups, learn how decisions are made and when you can make an impact, do it with friends.

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