Decius wrote:
] Is it possible that the english language does not have a word
] for someone who is opposed to organized politics? Anyone got
] any suggestions?

[ When you say you're opposed to organized politics, i think you're being a little too general. Politics is sort of definitionally a system by which you determine the governance of a thing.

What you mean, i guess, is that you're opposed to the concept of political parties, which are of course little more than schoolyard cliques, all growed up. Alas, it's a little like saying you're opposed to air, since people will probably always cluster and group themselves according to the various laws of psychological gravity... I may be too cynical to believe this will change.

Still, it's a valid position to take, and one which I fairly agree with... to take the vast spectrum of standpoints available for all of the uncounted topics we deal with and extract only two distinct sets is absurd. It's only marginally tractable since many standpoints are relatively codependent, a fact which helps lead to the ultimate distillation into 2 sides.

I think what you are, and what we all should be, is Independent. I realize that that term is used to mean "not Democrat or Republican" to most, but it really is the essence, i think, of what you're saying. "I'm an independent. I'm my own party. I have a platform based on my opinions. It my be more or less similar to another set of opinions, but it's still uniquely mine, because it was developed by my unique rationale."

Of course, the better question than how to label onesself is how to put the spectrum back on the table... how to enable a system which can represent more nuance than Red vs. Blue. I'm sure there are political scientists and technologists and bright folks from Edge and the Well and all sorts of think tanks who've bandied this about before... what's been said? Can we get to the kind of quorum system envisioned by Brin (Earth) and Card (Enders Game) among others?

Sadly, in the meantime, we may debate nuance all day long, but at the ballots, we have to decide which side of the singularity we're on... it's pretty easy for me these days, but that doesn't mean i wouldn't prefer a more nuanced system. How do we get there? -k]

RE: Help, I need to invent a new word.