Thread by @shadihamid

I have a new essay that delves deeper into one of my preoccupations—whether "unity" or "consensus" are good things, or whether they are best avoided in democracy. Here's my case against consensus. 1/x

wisdomofcrowds.live/against-consen…

In his address to Congress, Biden said something that stood out to me, because it seemed to misunderstand at a rather fundamental level why democracies are better than autocracies. 2/x

The framing of the problem betrays a technocratic bias—that regime types should be judged based on whether they work. "What works-ism" provides us with a purely instrumental argument, and one that wades into the democracy vs. autocracy contest on autocrats' terms. 3/x

What I try to do in this piece is highlight the generative possibilities of conflict. Dissonance is sometimes better, and I propose a theoretical framework that can help us shift our understanding of democracy accordingly. There is honor in both fantasy and struggle. 4/x

Consensus isn't what democracy is meant to produce, in the first place. The search for consensus also narrows the range of possibilities, which isn't a good thing for any democracy that wishes to stay vibrant. 5/5

wisdomofcrowds.live/against-consen…