As we move into the second Fall season of the pandemic we see a majority opinion that accepts all government imposed strategies to control the pandemic and a minority opinion that resists them.
These two opinions reflect time honoured worldviews. And my voting procedures petition comes down on the side of one of these world views, but more of that later.
One worldview holds that people are naturally benevolent and good. The other holds that people are weak, fallible and self-interested.
I take inspiration for these observations from The Great Divide, written in 2015 by William D. Gairdner.
If people are good then society can be made perfect by people because government is a product of human will. That's one worldview.
The other worldview says forced perfection always has evil results; current society is settled in its practices through long experience, trusted moral codes, tradition and folk wisdom.
I see the two worldviews impacting our daily lives differently through the weight of government regulations. Many say to approach perfection we need a lot of regulations. I say that to protect our settled society we must keep regulations to a bare minimum.
I have compared these two levels of regulation in the table below using four areas of our daily lives:
- Voting Procedures - complicated or simple
- K-12 Education - centralized or local
- Safety - laws or judgments
- Pandemic - COVID 19 or Commie Virus (google "Commie Virus" for fun)
And I epitomized with one word the attitude instilled by pervasive regulations (obedience) and, with another word, the attitude that naturally evolves from minimal regulations (resilience).
My petition calls for a return to the simpler voting procedures we enjoyed when Election Day was a single day that was publicized through concentrated media exposure and provided in an opportunity for interactions with neighbours at the in-person voting place in each community.
