The foundation of the TDG is the neighborhood. It is from each neighborhood that a great neighborhood representative is found. This representative brings the right qualities into TDG governance.
In today’s democracies, we usually base our vote for three reasons: tradition, good feelings, and self-interest. I say the TDG voter should look for other criteria. One is “good character” of the viable candidates.
The executive committee of the TDG has an obligation to educate the membership about this voting criterion. Just before each TDG election, the committee should communicate “voting for good character” to the membership.
Here’s the catch! The executive committee really does not define “good character” for the members. Rather the communiques should ask each member to think about what “good character” means to each member. Then each member writes the name of the neighbor who best exemplifies that good character on the ballot.
For example, I would cast my vote for neighborhood representative to the neighbor who is relatively free of addictions. My life experience is that addictions cloud the affected people’s judgement. So we should not bring addictions into political decisioning making (in my opinion).
If another neighbor has a different criterion, that would be that neighbor’s right to vote in this way. I cannot force my definition of good character on my neighbors, and they cannot force theirs on me.
And if my neighborhood elects someone who, I believe, is too far into an addiction, I will not lose that much sleep. That person will soon be more of a public figure. If the addiction dominates his/her TDG behaviour, we will soon see it. We can elect someone else next year. Or maybe this person has such a great talent for TDG governance that the addiction really does not impede the TDG work. We won’t know until we try this person out, right? If this person proves to be a really good representative, I could vote for him or her in the next election.
When most neighborhood representatives are indeed people of mostly good character, then the best of them will find their way into the higher tiers.
Kind of neat, eh?
Published on Medium 2024
Why Donald Trump won't rise in the TDG
