Indablog

YouTube, The US State Dept and some other groups have been sponsoring a contest called the “Democracy Video Challenge.” I like the concept, which has surfaced some excellent content from around the world. But it’s unfortunate that their voting procedures are more about democracy theater than democracy itself.

In any case, the community manager is pretty active on Facebook, and just posed a question as a status update… “Democracy is…compromise? Would you be willing to work together with someone you disagree with if it meant making progress on a problem in your country?”

My response:

Politics is about managed conflict (and democracy is a potential vehicle for its management), so willingness to collaborate via compromise should be the default position. But the question as posed is pretty vague. Some interests are less amenable to compromise than others. Thus, as Clausewitz taught, war is the conduct of politics through other means.

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