@annabelcrabb here using the common belief that democracy is ‘the people’ thinking and acting, in this case…

@annabelcrabb here using the common belief that democracy is ‘the people’ thinking and acting, in this case to provide checks and balances on power. Why I think that’s a very dangerous misunderstanding. /1 https://t.co/OCFuRrJxZj https://t.co/Wv8OIlQUBz

It’s worth pointing out that the Ancient Greeks, inventors of democracy, fiercely rejected the idea of ‘the people’ being anything meaningful at all. The situation Annabel describes, the erosion of two-party team sports into multi-group team sports, is…just team sports. /2

Australian governance didn’t begin with a two-party duopoly. It evolved, to rectify the problems not having the duopoly created. A de-evolution back to pre-two party days is not democratic progress. And this isn’t to defend two-party governance either. /3

All politics is really social, imitative rivalry between social groups, as Rene Girard said. In the absence of mass means of imitation, like social media today, things will tend to settle into a duopoly rivalry. But now we can all copy one another in intimate detail. /4

The number of social teams has proliferated exponentially, as a result. All centred around social status, and the identity it gives team members. And here’s the kicker. What looks like a diversification of democracy, in a minority government, is something more dangerous. /5

It’s the splintering of society into a chaotic collection of rival groups, focused not on collective need but on their rivalry with other groups. As Girard described, mass imitation leads to mimetic crisis. /6

Where mass similarity, through mass imitation, leads to only one thing left over which groups can battle. Rivalry itself. They imitate each other’s violence, towards each other, as on most everything else they’re largely undifferentiated, through imitation. /7

Leading to an exponential cascade of violence, feeding upon itself. Paradoxically, growing ever more similar through mass, continuous imitation leads to a catastrophic outbreak of violence. Who doesn’t see this? Violence not just of acts, but of words and demeanour? /8

How increasingly ‘feral’ societies are, how increasingly lacking in civility and decency? This isn’t ’the people’ doing anything, in that democratic myth framing. It’s a proliferation of social teams, constantly at war with one another, and imitating their rivalry. /9

Look at any social media post by a public institution, for example, the immediate, prolific pile-on it causes. People are locked into compulsive rivalry now. Democracy never was ‘the people’ doing anything. The people is a myth. /10

We think ‘the people’ look a bit like the picture on the left. When in reality it looks like the diagram on the right. Networked, with hubs (team leaders). There is no thinking, acting entity called ‘the people’. /11 https://t.co/9zKuxlViEp

Just a collection of status hierarchies, rivals with one another, constantly shifting through imitation and rivalry. Public policy is now what ‘trends’. Often for about 10 minutes. Even where people agree on everything, they will fight to differentiate themselves. /12

Because differentiation creates status in a society, and from status comes identity. And when we’re all hyper-imitated through social media, again the only thing left to imitate is the rivalry itself. Girard’s mimetic crisis. Uncontrolled violence. /13

But nobody cares, we’re all too infected by the team sports of ‘politics’ to want to step outside it even for 5 minutes to understand what’s really going on. And so history (and Girard) shows, what comes next is catastrophe. The only thing that breaks the pattern. /end