Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Bush-The Mastermind behind 9/11? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (8554)	10/15/2004 10:38:02 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20039

Lazarus > Is there any country that has politicians you do like? I'm not aware of any for the simple reason that everyone is trying to get more out of the system than he puts in -- and the politicians are there to enable that -- and, of course, to see that they, or their sponsors, get the most. > In spite of what you may think of them, how DO you run a representative republic of 293 million without politicians? That's a matter for considerable discussion. Briefly, as I see it, every political system ever devised has flaws. And indeed, as Polybius said, there is no constant political system, merely the one that's there for the time being. Nothing is cast in stone. sms.org >> For monarchy, he claims, inevitably degrades into tyranny. Tyranny is then replaced by aristocracy, which in turn degrades into oligarchy. Oligarchy then is overthrown by democracy, which ultimately falls into its own corresponding distortion, mob-rule (or ochlocracy). In Polybius’ analysis, the cycle then starts up again (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy) since anarchy inevitably creates a void that some new demagogue will fill.8 'Anaku/klwsij, the sliding from one form of constitution into another, is unavoidable because of the inherent weakness of each simple form of constitution.<< What I believe we are looking at today, certainly in the US, is the decline of democracy into oligarchy, where the power, although nominally in the hands of We the People, is actually wielded by cliques and lobbies, in other words, the elite, and far removed from view.

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (8554)	10/16/2004 5:00:10 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 20039

Re: And you have no hope of having a pure democracy that large. Even in that liberal beacon, ancient Athens, which supposedly was a "pure democracy", 90% of the population was actually slaves. Only the leisure class were citizens and had time to bother with politics. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF CORPORATE COLLECTIVISM by Eric Blair Chapter I Ignorance is Strength Throughout recorded time, and probably since the end of the Neolithic Age, there have been three kinds of people in the world, the High, the Middle, and the Low. They have been subdivided in many ways, they have borne countless different names, and their relative numbers, as well as their attitude towards one another, have varied from age to age: but the essential structure of society has never altered. Even after enormous upheavals and seemingly irrevocable changes, the same pattern has always reasserted itself, just as a gyroscope will always return to equilibrium, however far it is pushed one way or the other. The aims of these three groups are entirely irreconcilable. The aim of the High is to remain where they are. The aim of the Middle is to change places with the High. The aim of the Low, when they have an aim --for it is an abiding characteristic of the Low that they are too much crushed by drudgery to be more than intermittently conscious of anything outside their daily lives --is to abolish all distinctions and create a society in which all men shall be equal. Thus throughout history a struggle which is the same in its main outlines recurs over and over again. For long periods the High seem to be securely in power, but sooner or later there always comes a moment when they lose either their belief in themselves or their capacity to govern efficiently, or both. They are then overthrown by the Middle, who enlist the Low on their side by pretending to them that they are fighting for liberty and justice. As soon as they have reached their objective, the Middle thrust the Low back into their old position of servitude, and themselves become the High. Presently a new Middle group splits off from one of the other groups, or from both of them, and the struggle begins over again. Of the three groups, only the Low are never even temporarily successful in achieving their aims. It would be an exaggeration to say that throughout history there has been no progress of a material kind. Even today, in a period of decline, the average human being is physically better off than he was a few centuries ago. But no advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality a millimetre nearer. From the point of view of the Low, no historic change has ever meant much more than a change in the name of their masters. [...] Subject 33609