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Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Politics Discussion Thread January 2013 - Less Wrong Discussion
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(Not sure whether this should go here or the Open Thread.)
We frequently discuss the difference between epistemic and instrumental rationality. Most political discussions seem to be "epistemic politics" - what political beliefs to have and why. I see very little discussion of "instrumental politics" - what kind of political actions to take and why. Beyond mind-killing, this is probably the main reason I currently have no interest in politics: I don't have a good conception of what kind of political actions are available to me. How would I go about fixing this?
A while ago I was in an online discussion with someone from an East European country who was demostrating to end the current government.
I asked the person for an article that explains the evils of the government. He told me that I didn't know of an English article that explained the issue in detail.
I told him that instead of being the 10,001st person at protest it would be much more effective to write a English article that explain the evil of the government and submit it to the Guardian's Comment is Free section.
He didn't think he was qualified to write the article and instead continued to demonstrate. Writing such an article is something that doesn't need special connections or money.
On the other hand it does take courage. You might come under attack. It takes real political understanding of the situation. It takes writing abilites.
Most other effective political action involves talking to people who have influence or donating money.
This probably hardly counts as "political action", but one of the most efficient ways of voting is probably with your feet - move to a place whose policies you like.
My general policy is "Most political action is counterproductive; the silent vote is the least likely to engender resistance."
That said, I'm probably wrong on this matter. Loud political movements are frequently also effective political movements, even though they do engender high degrees of resistance. The issue is it's hard to identify quiet political movements and evaluate their influence.