It occurred to me recently that petitions are almost completely pointless. If I were the Prime Minister and I received a petition signed by 10 million people that called for a stop to X, I would infer that probably 95% of those 10 million people really don't care much about X and whether it continues or not. Because it's just far too easy to sign a petition. There's nothing to lose. In their programme, "Bullshit!", Penn and Teller demonstrated as much when they persuaded people to endorse banning water and other such ridiculous notions because they just didn't think about what they were signing and inferred that it was easier to sign than not.
I have a solution! In every town and city we should have a public building devoted to solitary reflection. When you sign a petition endorsing some action occur you must also agree to attend one of these centres for one hour and sit there on your own and reflect for an hour upon the cause that you think is so important. Well, of course you wouldn't be forced to think about that, but you are essentially giving up one hour of your time to show some tiny degree of dedication to the cause. You can't read, do crosswords, or even talk to other people, but just sit, in relative comfort, and think about something. You're entitled to meditate but you cannot sleep, otherwise it would be too easy to appear more concerned about a cause than you really are, by just sleeping through the hour. Only when you have attended one of these events is your vote on the petition made official. If I were the prime minister and was told that 10 million people had individually given an hour of their time as an expression that they believed in some cause, that a total of 10 million hours had been sacrificed, then I would take immediate notice of the cause, and do something to satisfy the people. Until this state of affairs has become actual, petitions will continue to be meaningless.
