Hive intelligence is fascinating to study. Scientists have long ago realized that the queen bee, ant, or termite has nothing to do with the organization of the hive. No, each member of the hive does what instinct tells it to do at any given moment. The collective choices of all the members determine what the group will do. And all those choices occurring at the same time mimic the electrons firing in the human brain. So, we call that “hive intelligence.”
What Is An Election?
It’s exactly the same process. Every individual voter makes a choice, and the grand sum total of all those choices produces the collective will of the voters.
And It Happened Again
For the fourth time in two years, an electorate in a developed country that could have put a right-wing populist in power has instead made the sane choice.
Two French leftist parties recently divided the country between them to avoid vote splitting, thus preventing LePenn’s radicals from doing a run up the Right side to power.
Britain threw out Boris Johnson and hired an accountant nobody ever heard of.
British Columbians refused to fall for the “new” Conservative party and re-elected the NDP.
Now Canada has tossed the populist bully on his butt and hired a very capable accountant of our own. It’s interesting that we didn’t go all the way to giving the Liberals a majority, proving that we weren’t panicked into anything foolish. A very intelligent hive. Liberal minorities seem to work pretty well. Almost like Proportional Representation. Our hive mind is definitely leaning in that direction.
Scanning the media, I don’t see any doubt in anybody’s mind; the election was Poilievre’s to lose, and he lost it. Of course, his ego won’t let him admit this. He will always blame somebody else (probably Trudeau).
Hopefully the hive intelligence of the Conservative Party will kick into gear. Pierre will be sent the path of his last two predecessors and the party will find a leader that can tread the line between keeping the Liberals honest and helping all Canadians fight the threat from Trump. Poilievre has tried to change his spots once before. See how long the “softer look” lasted.
At least we’ll be spared his abrasive insults in Question Period for a while.
The Lesson to be Learned
None of these progressive parties won by very much. The pendulum in the civilized world has made a small wiggle away from the Right, but…well, just look south. Obviously the uber-rich and their political flunkies have a long way to go before they give up.
The Bottom Line
The problem, as usual, is rich men with too much power. The time has come to break up the big combines again. Anti-trust laws need to be reviewed worldwide; many of them reflect economic realities of a hundred years ago. It’s time humanity’s hive mind started thinking for itself.