I think the answer is most likely that we can’t. I’d be willing to have a discussion potentially leading us to that conclusion. I’ll put it in my too-long queue of top-level posts to write...
The guy who wanted to start a polling firm might have a good idea, but I think if Nate Silver hasn’t started his own polling firm yet we probably aren’t going to.
Historically I’ve stayed away from political activism, but I got involved with a group trying to raise awareness about the police assaults on the University of Pittsburgh after the G20 summit. I thought it was a small enough issue that we could make a difference, but obviously we didn’t. While I give the posters here a little more credit for being able to get things done than my leftist friends in Pittsburgh, I have no practical ideas for how we could actually accomplish something not at the meta-level.
Probably the best thing we could do is try to spread some of the memes raised in Politics is the Mind Killer.
I don’t know how to feasibly do that except by convincing a bunch of people (future teachers) which reduces to the initial question, how to change stuff (= how to convince people). Sorry.
But at least future teachers are a smaller group of people than a majority of voters.
Well, the mentioned Pirate Party is an example of succesfull political activism. Our party is already doing politics even before our first national elections, since the party often gives out statements on new legislation as requested by the justice ministry. Our neighbour parties in Sweden and Germany are even more succesful. And many of the lesswrong/transhumanist people are active in the Finnish Pirate Party.
Maybe we could turn the discussion to “how might a community of rationalists actually accomplish something, re. this or that issue”?
I think the answer is most likely that we can’t. I’d be willing to have a discussion potentially leading us to that conclusion. I’ll put it in my too-long queue of top-level posts to write...
The guy who wanted to start a polling firm might have a good idea, but I think if Nate Silver hasn’t started his own polling firm yet we probably aren’t going to.
Historically I’ve stayed away from political activism, but I got involved with a group trying to raise awareness about the police assaults on the University of Pittsburgh after the G20 summit. I thought it was a small enough issue that we could make a difference, but obviously we didn’t. While I give the posters here a little more credit for being able to get things done than my leftist friends in Pittsburgh, I have no practical ideas for how we could actually accomplish something not at the meta-level.
Probably the best thing we could do is try to spread some of the memes raised in Politics is the Mind Killer.
Get control of the educational system.
I don’t know how to feasibly do that except by convincing a bunch of people (future teachers) which reduces to the initial question, how to change stuff (= how to convince people). Sorry.
But at least future teachers are a smaller group of people than a majority of voters.
Well, the mentioned Pirate Party is an example of succesfull political activism. Our party is already doing politics even before our first national elections, since the party often gives out statements on new legislation as requested by the justice ministry. Our neighbour parties in Sweden and Germany are even more succesful. And many of the lesswrong/transhumanist people are active in the Finnish Pirate Party.