Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian View Post
Reg Keys, General Election 2005, Sedgefield

An independent candidate does not get elected, but he gets his say on election day as does every other candidate, and every other candidate has to stand there and listen to him have his say.
Apparently the UK uses FPTP in a different way than the US does, as in you use it for the election of single MPs but it's not the deciding factor for the ruling party, otherwise I do not understand why you have coalitions on a national level.
I don't think you can merge two MPs to get one who represents both MPs' views so that's a bit different. Why does hardly anyone in the US vote for parties other than the Republicans or the Democrats? Do 98% of the country love either of those two parties that much?

Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
We might speak of the "potential energy" of a mobilized public, but the problem is that mobilization is of a typically highly-diffuse group that shares as its only uniting factor common citizenship in a certain state, and is almost always fueled by rage or panic, toward short-term (and perhaps short-sighted) solutions, is probably not as noble a goal as it might seem.

Reflexive reactions associated with anger or fear are of course evolutionarily advantageous, engaging us to swerve out of oncoming traffic or avoid a falling object, at this point in our history we must acknowledge that its usefulness has run out. We must, if possible, modify our physiology in such a way as to change this response, such that immediate danger can be recognized accurately and quickly, but without the concomitant sensitization, sensory neglect, and contextual collapse/convergence. This will make our actions what could be called "better-considered" for longer periods of time during stressful situations. The downside would likely be considerably-increased metabolic expense, but at this point I think a few more humans starving to death under extreme conditions would be a small price to pay for cognitive efficiency.
Yes, I think a good way to achieve that is a good education.