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AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.

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I am interested in two aspects of voting: first, in the performative / ritualistic aspects, how it provides a minimal amount of participation, how it brings the country together into a group decision process. It's a ritual whose product is not just decisions, but legitimation of itself and the institutions it is part of. That fascinates me for some reason. For me, voting is something like my equally dubious participation in religious ritual; I act despite my doubts and am fascinated by the fact that my lack of belief doesn't matter than much, the ritual has a power of its own. (see Politics as Ritual )

Politics as Ritual

26 Feb 2023 - 17 Jun 2023

See ritual and Voting

This page made in response to Meaningness/Tribalism and Fluidity, which advocates what to me seems a very rationalist approach to politics, that it should be a matter of dry policy decisions, not drama and emotion. He takes an understandably dim view of the irrational passions that turn disagreements into dehumanization and violence.

My view is quite opposite – not that he's wrong, but I think that passion and other forms of irrationality are necessary and good parts of politics, not things you can reason away (or transcend by becoming more meta, which seems to be the Kegan stage model). I wrote a bunch of posts trying to get at the ritual and sacral nature of politics:

Omniorthogonal: Voting as ritual

Omniorthogonal: The Sacred State

Omniorthogonal: Republic of Heaven

Omniorthogonal: Inaugural

Omniorthogonal: Just bring enough for the ritual