At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve a blow was struck for direct democracy in the Netherlands, as the law on citizen initiatives was changed to allow not just ordinary signatures, but also digital ones. In our 24/7 internet ready world this is probably a good thing, even if every IT professional reading this winces at the though of how easy it is to abuse such a system. The citizen initiative, a way to force parliament to put any subject enough people feel strongly about on its agenda, has never been easier to initiate, a powerful weapon for the common voter to put their stamp on our democracy.
The 64,000 dollar question now was which burning issue would be brought to the attention of our representatives. Would the first digital initiative be about the credit crunch perhaps, or about the dire state of the world climate, or would somebody use it to bring the plight of Gaza under the eyes of parliament?
Sadly, No. The first digital citizen initiative has been used for a proposal to ban fireworks…
So, with this great democratic leap forward, what do citizens elect to do with their new found power and responsibility? Why, declare their support for the War on Fun of course! The first digital Citizen’s Initiative is here, and it’s about fireworks. The citizens, led by Green Party city council member and sour puss David Rietveld, want it outlawed. To be precise, they demand that only professionals are allowed to light fireworks on New Year’s Eve, an activity often shared between dads and their sons.
As is typical for this time, something that is clearly wrong and illegal is taken and glued to something that is fun, yet irritating to some. In this case, the New Year’s celebrations are a signal to a very few troublemakers to start burning cars and houses. And so the David Rietvelds of this world figure that it is clearly the fireworks that are at fault, not the troublemakers — who in my opionion won’t be hindered by fireworks-banning legislation in the first place, and if they did would just find other ways to be dorks.
Welcome to the War on Fun. So much more important than anything else happening in the world.