Here’s some of what Buckminster Fuller wrote in his book NO MORE SECONDHAND GOD, pages 10-17, in 1940:
“In the great quasi “democracies,” so far as the general scheming of things is concerned the individual no longer exists…as citizen man is expressed only as a party machine in the “body” politic, and his government expresses a mean low average statistic “man.” Any social action, if at all, is weeks, months, and years laggard to the thinking frontier of the individual…”
“Many people believe Democracy obsolete. They are wrong… I will explain. That is, I will if it’s Democracy you really wish to save, and not some trick you have been getting away with behind its kindly broad young back…”
“Democracy has potential within it the satisfaction of every individual’s need. But Democracy must be structurally modernized, must be mechanically implemented, to give it a one-individual-to-another speed and spontaneity of reaction commensurate with the speed and scope of broadcast news…”
“Devise a mechanical means for nation-wide voting daily and secretly by each adult citizen of Uncle Sam’s family: Then – I assure you- will Democracy “be saved,” indeed exist, for the first time in history…”
“Electrified voting…promises a household efficiency superior to any government of record because it incorporates not only the speed of decision which is the greatest strength of the dictator, but additional advantages which can never be his.”
“Additional advantages of electrified voting first coming to mind:
- Provides an instantaneous contour map of the workable frontier of the people’s wisdom, for purposes of legislation, administration, future exploration, and debate, so that neither over nor under estimate may occur, of their will and ability.
- Certifies spontaneous popular co-operation in the carrying out of each decision.
- No foreign power in the world can stand up against the unified might thus invoked through the thrilling mystical awareness of multimillions of individuals that they personally have taken responsibility for the course…
- It cuts right across all red-tape…
- As direct evolution it cancels the possibility of revolution…”
“BUT if direct Democracy is not tried now, future generations will again champion it, and there will be world civil wars until it receives adequate trial.”