The duality of centralized control in the hands of elites vs. decentralized democratic humanistic political organization seems to me to be as old as civilization. Same oppressor beast, dressed up now in techno clothing. Same fearful subservient and misinformed populace, now made so through censorship as opposed to by lack of education.…
The duality of centralized control in the hands of elites vs. decentralized democratic humanistic political organization seems to me to be as old as civilization. Same oppressor beast, dressed up now in techno clothing. Same fearful subservient and misinformed populace, now made so through censorship as opposed to by lack of education. I think it is reflective of an irresolvable conundrum of politics: give too much power to the elites and the power will go to their heads and they will become oppressors; give too much power to the people and they will make decisions out of ignorance, lack of experience and become disordered -- a kind of ochlocracy of the ignorant.
The Remains Of The Day, with Anthony Hopkins is a movie that explores this dichotomy: showing the folly of both the elites and the incompetence of the inexpert. Democracy tends to give the nod to the people, however, ill informed they may be, hoping and possibly assuming (without evidence) that in the long run the people will figure out its mistakes and make better choices. Aristocracy or elitism assumes its decisions will be better informed, ignoring how its judgments will be skewed by its own narcissistic biases. The former is a danger because it is too uninformed and inexpert; the latter a danger because it is not as well informed nor as expert as it thinks.
The United States, and indeed most Parliamentary democracies have attempted to resolve this through representation, assuming that representatives (aka politicians) will be more skillful at directing government in a way that is salutary to the public. While seemingly a reasonable compromise, this solution has proved itself to be riddled with flaws, including the tendency of such representatives to be influenced by party loyalty, dark money, and election tampering.
Is there any solution? Probably not a perfect one, but given the tendency of the powerful to usurp even greater power, and those more distant from those they represent to be less answerable to them, I think the solution is to weaken centralized authority and keep the power more decentralized and close to the local community. We also need to find a way to engage the public more in the political process. In Brazil, voting is mandatory. In this country, you participate if you feel like it. This election I voted on 5 separate bond issues and 7 or more referenda. I had no awareness of many of these referenda. If we don't have a lively engaged and respectful debate about politics on an ongoing basis in local town halls, we will never learn to respect our opponents, never learn from them, and become ever more entrenched in our monocular polarized viewpoints.
Thank you for not talking in word salad. I’m not an ignorant person but some of this supposedly genius person’s thoughts are so wordy and complex they make my head explode.
When people accepted a dnw upgrade from me, their comprension went way up. One person at instapundit i remember as not understanding much ofbwhat i wrote until they got a dna upgrade.
The duality of centralized control in the hands of elites vs. decentralized democratic humanistic political organization seems to me to be as old as civilization. Same oppressor beast, dressed up now in techno clothing. Same fearful subservient and misinformed populace, now made so through censorship as opposed to by lack of education. I think it is reflective of an irresolvable conundrum of politics: give too much power to the elites and the power will go to their heads and they will become oppressors; give too much power to the people and they will make decisions out of ignorance, lack of experience and become disordered -- a kind of ochlocracy of the ignorant.
The Remains Of The Day, with Anthony Hopkins is a movie that explores this dichotomy: showing the folly of both the elites and the incompetence of the inexpert. Democracy tends to give the nod to the people, however, ill informed they may be, hoping and possibly assuming (without evidence) that in the long run the people will figure out its mistakes and make better choices. Aristocracy or elitism assumes its decisions will be better informed, ignoring how its judgments will be skewed by its own narcissistic biases. The former is a danger because it is too uninformed and inexpert; the latter a danger because it is not as well informed nor as expert as it thinks.
The United States, and indeed most Parliamentary democracies have attempted to resolve this through representation, assuming that representatives (aka politicians) will be more skillful at directing government in a way that is salutary to the public. While seemingly a reasonable compromise, this solution has proved itself to be riddled with flaws, including the tendency of such representatives to be influenced by party loyalty, dark money, and election tampering.
Is there any solution? Probably not a perfect one, but given the tendency of the powerful to usurp even greater power, and those more distant from those they represent to be less answerable to them, I think the solution is to weaken centralized authority and keep the power more decentralized and close to the local community. We also need to find a way to engage the public more in the political process. In Brazil, voting is mandatory. In this country, you participate if you feel like it. This election I voted on 5 separate bond issues and 7 or more referenda. I had no awareness of many of these referenda. If we don't have a lively engaged and respectful debate about politics on an ongoing basis in local town halls, we will never learn to respect our opponents, never learn from them, and become ever more entrenched in our monocular polarized viewpoints.
Thank you for not talking in word salad. I’m not an ignorant person but some of this supposedly genius person’s thoughts are so wordy and complex they make my head explode.
Scholars and specialists have their own language. Aka military slang acronyms
When people accepted a dnw upgrade from me, their comprension went way up. One person at instapundit i remember as not understanding much ofbwhat i wrote until they got a dna upgrade.
U want to know how real democracies work? Look at american idol and donetsk elections