[lbo-talk] Graber on consensus

[123hop at comcast.net]

The only problem with the picture you paint is that consensus has been the fundamental process for collective decision making for most cultures throughout history. This makes it rather hard to describe it as psychopathological or neoliberal. 

Joanna 

----- Original Message ----- 
Bill B: "A permanent state of majority rule is OTOH a permanent 
dictatorship, with all the evil side-effects that any dictatorship 
entails." 

[WS:] As I see it, anarchists and fellow travelers are obsessed with 
the primacy of the individual over the collective. They are like 
neoliberals - individual is beautiful, anything collective is a 
potential threat to individual freedom. Their whole idea of 
consensus-decision making is basically hedging to preserve individual 
veto or exit power vis a vis the collective. Their view of the 
collective is rather rigid - as a permanent dictatorship of leaders 
over everyone else, as your statement aptly summarizes.