I see your point and upvoted, but schism is a pretty loaded word. Not all breakups are schisms, and it’s plausible that an amicable parting would allow people to work in a movement where they will be more effective. Sometimes the kids are happier in a fairly good divorce than in a turbulent marriage.
There are costs to a unified movement. Given the most likely fault lines for a split, what would people would need to compromise on, and do you think they are willing?
To me, some kind of federalism seems worth thinking about as a way to take stress off some of the fault lines. You can choose to live in Alabama or California while still being American. You can be Baptist or Catholic and still be Christian.
What is making things non-federal today? There already are, e.g. groups for Christians in EA which have some quite different ideas to the rest of the movement but coexist pretty peacefully. Is there something more that you would want there?
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.
I see your point and upvoted, but schism is a pretty loaded word. Not all breakups are schisms, and it’s plausible that an amicable parting would allow people to work in a movement where they will be more effective. Sometimes the kids are happier in a fairly good divorce than in a turbulent marriage.
There are costs to a unified movement. Given the most likely fault lines for a split, what would people would need to compromise on, and do you think they are willing?
To me, some kind of federalism seems worth thinking about as a way to take stress off some of the fault lines. You can choose to live in Alabama or California while still being American. You can be Baptist or Catholic and still be Christian.
What is making things non-federal today? There already are, e.g. groups for Christians in EA which have some quite different ideas to the rest of the movement but coexist pretty peacefully. Is there something more that you would want there?
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.