Mary, Re : "Real democracy is messy stuff, but that is also where you get the best and brightest. Perhaps there is a better way, but for now, democracy is the still the best way to go."
Nice post. But cant agree with you fully. At a national level, we often hear this kind of things in US and take it for granted, especially since Soviet collapse. America's system triumphed over USSR, without a doubt. Can you say the same about China over India ? China has become a superpower, while India has a very large starving population (inspite of enormous 'techinal' prowess). So, democracy has been a failure for half the world population.
Democracy as a concept is great. But without (some) self-restraint and discipline, it goes out of control. There is some sort of moderation needed in any society. America is a democracy well executed. China is a 'moderated' society well executed (no pun intended here!), given what they are each trying to achieve.
Regarding 'moderation' : Feelings are important in the society. You have to restrain people who steamroll over other peoples feelings and they needs to be moderated (and even in our democratic system we have rules to protect people from being steamrolled). Sure, moderation is not perfect and can be biased (as we saw on AMD thread), but 'no moderation' isn't perfect either.
Having said that, I did vote (very strongly) against Pauls ban. This is because, this thread is an investment thread. IMO, Paul adds enormous investment value to a thread, who (with a few exception) is completely disconnected from real life, IMO. If AMD Mod thread was real life, I would strongly speak out against Paul. But, then again Paul (I hear) has a very different personality in real life.
Maui. |
