What and how much makes a difference?

post by Marius Adrian Nicoară · 2024-06-05T10:30:53.493Z · LW · GW · 0 comments

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This election year, we'll have the whole shebang in Romania:

• June 9: election of local officials and representatives to the European Parliament
• September 15 and 29: first and second round of presidential elections
• December 8: elections for the Romanian Parliament

Quite a workout for the civic muscles.

But I am reminded of a story told by Voltaire[*]. A band of actors was traveling through villages to explain the difference between despotism and democracy. They performed each system of governance as follows:

• for despotism, the actors sat in a single file, facing the back of the person in front of them. The despot sat at the back of the line, with no one behind him. In front of him were people with roles of descending rank. The peasant sat at the front of the line, with all the others at his back. On a whim, the despot kicked the noble in front of him, who passed the kick down the ranks, until it reached the poor peasant, who had no option but to endure
• for democracy, the actors sat in a circle, each person facing another's back. Now the despot had the peasant behind him. When the despot kicked the person in front of them, the kick would circle back to them and the despot quickly caught on that there were consequences for his whims.

One takeaway: only trust people who are punished for misbehaving. Another takeaway: eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

Related to the last takeaway, I suspect that one reason why some people are reluctant to be civically active is that they want to avoid it taking over their lives. For such people, who would like to dip into the pond without sinking, I would recommend some advice:

• meaningful developments don't happen at the speed of notifications, so it's OK to have a sparse news diet

• a news story might be important, just not important to you. If it's not something that you can easily act upon, let it slide

• if someone does something to make you angry, ask yourself: How easy is it for me to ignore this? Rage bait can be quite tempting

• find a way to disconnect. Cultivate your garden, literally and metaphorically. Rest well and when the time comes for you to step up, you'll be able to bring the best version of yourself

The Romanian philosopher Andrei Pleșu has encouraged voting many times, even suggesting a trial with mandatory voting. In a different context, he confessed to leaving the tap water running while shaving, arguing that turning it on only when needed didn't really make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.

If your vote, one of many, expressed every now and again, is important, how can it be that small actions you do every day don't add up to a significant impact? I have the habit of knocking my shoes together before placing my feet inside a car, to shake of the dust. Also, during winter time, I knock the low side of the bus entrance with each boot to shake of the snow. Recently, a Bolt driver complimented me for this, mentioning it was the first time he saw someone doing it. What's a bit plus a bit? A little bit more.

Faced with the Lucifer effect, the mechanism that leads ordinary people to commit atrocities, Phillip Zimbardo proposes everyday heroism as an antidote. The soldiers who tortured prisoners in Abu Ghraib are a fact to be reckoned with, but so is Wesley Autrey, a construction worker who saved a man from being killed by a subway train.

I have sympathy for being moderate about sacrificing personal confort for the common good. 'Nothing in excess', as the maxim goes. As Peter Singer advises, there is no need to make yourself miserable in the pursuit of the welfare of others. Just consider, every now and again: if we are not each other's keepers, then who else is?

[*]Can't find the source for this, sorry.

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