In (US-style) federalism, the subunits (US states) have quite a bit of power and autonomy. I don’t have to worry myself about what Alabama decides about abortion or education. Being a South Carolinian or a Oregonian is a significant part of one’s political identity in a sense.
So, if for instance, if the “edgy” / “normie” divide became a critical fault line, under federalism you might see substantial meta groups focusing on one side of the line or the other with for example their own high-end conferences and internal networking. It’s not a rupture because central EA orgs would still exist, but it would do somewhat less.
It’s still a germ of an idea; the basic thought is that there has to be some way to let some steam out of the kettle—creating some degree of separation—before the kettle blows up and ruptures.
Okay, but different groups and orgs can already have different norms today, right? Nobody is enforcing conformity. The worst that can happen is that CEA can ban you from EAG, so I guess yes it would be nice to have someone else running conferences so you could go to those?
I’m not playing dumb here, I genuinely find it confusing in what ways people feel they are being coerced by a central power in EA.
In (US-style) federalism, the subunits (US states) have quite a bit of power and autonomy. I don’t have to worry myself about what Alabama decides about abortion or education. Being a South Carolinian or a Oregonian is a significant part of one’s political identity in a sense.
So, if for instance, if the “edgy” / “normie” divide became a critical fault line, under federalism you might see substantial meta groups focusing on one side of the line or the other with for example their own high-end conferences and internal networking. It’s not a rupture because central EA orgs would still exist, but it would do somewhat less.
It’s still a germ of an idea; the basic thought is that there has to be some way to let some steam out of the kettle—creating some degree of separation—before the kettle blows up and ruptures.
Okay, but different groups and orgs can already have different norms today, right? Nobody is enforcing conformity. The worst that can happen is that CEA can ban you from EAG, so I guess yes it would be nice to have someone else running conferences so you could go to those?
I’m not playing dumb here, I genuinely find it confusing in what ways people feel they are being coerced by a central power in EA.