{"id":1006,"date":"2014-09-25T15:59:28","date_gmt":"2014-09-25T14:59:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2014-10-25T12:23:48","modified_gmt":"2014-10-25T11:23:48","slug":"38-degrees-this-is-not-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/38-degrees-this-is-not-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"38 Degrees: This is NOT democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have just received an email message from 38 Degrees, an online campaigning organization in the UK that claims to have three million members of which, apparently, I am one. \u00a0The subject line is “Islamic State” and the message asks me to “vote” on what I think 38 Degrees should do. \u00a0I was given this link:<\/p>\n

https:\/\/secure.38degrees.org.uk\/page\/s\/air-strikes-poll-2#petition<\/a><\/p>\n

This is not democracy — it is just an online poll. \u00a0Where do I, or anyone else, have the chance to engage with other members and try to persuade them of my view? \u00a0Where I can I hear their views? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I won’t even comment on the matter\u00a0of whether anyone, a 38 Degrees “member” or not, can vote in this online poll, or vote multiple times (possibly using multiple email addresses).<\/p>\n

I won’t discuss\u00a0the issue\u00a0of who wrote the questions we are voting on. (Who did write them? \u00a0Where was this decided?) \u00a0The mass mailing I received makes reference to “the scandal of the UK’s 2003 invasion of Iraq” — but maybe not every 38 Degrees member will agree with this?<\/p>\n

The mailing also contains links to articles from the New York Times, Guardian and Washington Post, plus the “Stop the War Coalition”, an organization which in my view is lacking in all credibility. \u00a0So presumably we are to read these 3 or 4 links and then make up our minds?<\/p>\n

Giving “members” a vote but not a voice, a chance to say yes or no to pre-determined positions without any debate, is the stuff of authoritarians, not democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am sharing this blog with 38 Degrees and will of course welcome their response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have just received an email message from 38 Degrees, an online campaigning organization in the UK that claims to have three million members of which, apparently, I am one. \u00a0The subject line is “Islamic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-web-exclusive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericlee.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}