Hack Politics

“I define a hacker as an individual who experiments with the limitations of systems for intellectual curiosity or sheer pleasure; the word describes a person with a particular set of skills and not a particular set of morals.” – Bruce Schneier

Most people don’t care about systems. They care about results. They care about what gets done, not how it got done or why it got done. They spare little thought for the vast and complicated workings that support and shape their every action. When they want to get things done they interact with the system in the same ways they always have.

An example of how this attitude works out in politics: I attend a fairly liberal (ok, very very liberal) college. Every time elections come around, someone inevitably comes out to advocate voting for a third party, usually the local green party candidate. The two main parties, they argue, are hopelessly corrupted by big business interests and care little for the needs of most people. The two party system is inevitably denounced in the strongest of terms. By voting for the green party candidate, who probably actually does represent the positions of at least the student bodies interests, we can show the big party bosses what for and reclaim democracy. And all that good stuff.

And the thing is that they’re right. The two party system is corrupt and limiting and American democracy would almost undoubtedly be better off if we had more than two parties to choose from. The problem is that the two party system has nothing do with politics and everything to with the way the votes are counted. The existence of two major parties at the exclusion of all other parties is an inevitable and predictable outcome of the way the election system is organized. Third party candidates can never get major traction because the system is constructed in such a way that punishes anyone who votes for them, the punishment in this case being increasing the likelihood that their last choice candidate gets elected - like what happened to Floridians who voted for Nader. Now the voting system wasn’t intentionally constructed this way; it developed organically that way. If you want more than one party in power, you have to attack the system directly and replace it with a better system. Ignoring this fact about the system means that you’re just wasting your time.

The government, democracy, the media – these are all social systems. Vast, often corrupt, and highly complicated systems, systems that don’t work in the way or towards the ends that you were told as a child, but systems nonetheless. And as systems they can be studied and manipulated. If you’re unwilling to do so you’ll either end up at the mercy of those who are or with those who are currently in power still in power.

One group that (in my experience) does consider the power that economic, information, or government systems wield over our civilization are anarchists. But the most common reaction by anarchists is a complete separation from the systems of civilization – because they are corrupt or because they are currently being used towards immoral ends. This view is shortsighted. The engines of civilization are incredibly powerful. If they could be harnessed for good they could solve all the mankind’s problems within a single lifetime. And they can be harnessed for good. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to harness them and you’ll never do that by separation.

In order to harness the vast power of western civilization, you’ve got to be willing to experiment with them. You’ve got to be willing to hack around a bit. To make my meaning clear, when I say hacking I don’t mean just computer programming. I’m referring to exploration and manipulation of systems in all fields. It’s using things in ways they weren’t originally intended for and building new systems out of the parts of or inside old systems. Political hacking is political and social engineering done by small groups and individuals for fun and profit.

This is what I’m trying to advocate – the application of the hacker ethic to politics. Not just to politics though, to the whole spectrum of social systems that run our civilization. Because it’s not power we lack, it’s the ability to use it correctly. And the only way to figure out how to use it correct is by experimentation. We’re certainly not going to figure out if we let things lie as they are and with all the problems that the world is facing today, we need to start getting things right now more than ever.