This will be an online Zoom meeting. See our online meeting instructions at: https://torontooasis.org/online-meeting-instructions. Our program will run from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm. You can join the meeting starting at 10:45 am for our open social.
Last Sunday, we got started on the topic of Sortition by watching and discussing the following YouTube videos:
A real democracy would use sortition (2015) (4:22 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12V9rV_bp_M
Revitalizing Democracy, Sortition, and Citizen Power: Roger Berkowitz (2021) (23:55 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlvuTBEM96Y
This Sunday, we will watch another YouTube video and continue our discussion on Sortition. This topic was suggested by, and the video will be introduced by, Elka Enola, a Toronto Oasis participant.
The following is a description of our featured presentation this Sunday, Sortition Part 2, (in bold) provided by Elka:
Last Sunday, we had an introduction to sortition, a concept which is very much a concern of philosophers, social scientists, psychologists and others. I just attended a webinar on “Truth, Expertise and Democracy” where sortition was very much part of the discussion.
An excellent easy to understand one-hour conversation between Alex Guerrero and Michael Hannon on the topic can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKPO5uB2YtQ&t=2212s .
The 10-minute video we will be watching will give an overview of the actual mechanics of sortition; something that is dealt with more thoroughly in the longer video.
Some of the questions we might consider are: How to select experts. What to do when experts disagree. Some of these questions are applicable to any existing system, but in sortition they might be solved differently.
One of the hardest concepts for many people to wrap their brain around is the idea of trusting ‘ordinary people’. Firstly, parameters will be established, and some people will self-exclude. So, it won’t be just any ordinary person.
The person we now vote for is no more knowledgeable nor better informed than the ordinary person that sortition would select. They are expected to vote on a multitude of issues about which they are a hair’s breath away from ignorance. What they do know is their party’s policies and their party’s politics. They don’t have to understand anything.
But an informed citizen in a sortition assembly would be better informed and not be tied to any predetermined conclusions.
Please RSVP on the Meetup event page to get access to the Zoom link: https://www.meetup.com/toronto-oasis/events/304759829
By participating in this event, you agree to abide by the Toronto Oasis Code of Conduct (http://torontooasis.org/code-of-conduct).
Looking forward to seeing familiar faces and perhaps some new ones!