Changing Democracy

I’ve been doing some thinking about our democracy. And reading, and writing, and chatting. I confess, it feels like our system—created for such an utterly different era—may be no longer fit for purpose. So I came up with this ‘thought experiment’ (here's the link)… Re-imagining Democracy . One of the catalysts for it was reading the words of Sean Kelly (in a Quarterly Essay from late last year):  “ ..seeing reality with clarity demands an act of imagination. We cannot see our world as it is—what is lacking, the ways it is failing us—unless we can imagine it being some other way.” 

To make my thought experiment more ‘accessible’, a friend asked AI (yes – I’m horrified by it too), to create an audio podcast that explores the article. It’s much more engaging than my written words, while staying largely true to the ideas. And--added bonus--you can listen to it while doing other things.

Here’s the link, but please note the ‘warnings’ below it.

'Podcast'  (AI) discussion of 'Changing Democracy' by Tim Muirhead 

Be warned as you listen:

a)      The accents are North American (I like to think of them as Canadian, because I’m married to one. 😊)

b)     It’s SO engaging that it can distract you from your own critical thinking. My intention was to offer something that catalyses your own thinking, and feeds ongoing discussion about how we might do democracy differently. So don’t be sucked in by the charming voices. Stay sceptical! And creative!

c)       I’ve changed a few elements of my paper since this ‘podcast’ was generated, so there’s some minor disconnect between the spoken and written versions.

Have a listen and/or read, and I’d LOVE to hear your thoughts.  (Disagreement, in this context, is way more useful than agreement.)