On 11/6/2012 4:12 AM, scott wrote:
>> We need to have some sort of intelligence test for our elected leaders.
>> If they can't pass basic science, history, and math, they shouldn't be
>> allowed to hold political office.
>
> No, you need some sort of intelligence test for the *voters*, otherwise
> they will just vote against such leader testing or vote to make it so
> easy it's pointless.

"The problem is not that certain classes are unfit to govern.  Every 
class is unfit to govern."

The notion that our political problems can be solved by granting power 
to the right people is inherently flawed.  Power always winds up in the 
hands of the least trustworthy because the most trustworthy have utterly 
no interest in power.

First of all, the basic desire for power--that is, the desire for the 
ability to compel others--is inherently anti-rational.  This places it 
in direct conflict with the rational virtues, such as honestly and 
self-control.  Hence politicans, of every party, will always come from 
the shallow end of the virtue pool.

Second, every worthy sentiment has avenues of expression outside of 
politics.  You can feed the poor, shelter the homeless, cure diseases, 
create beauty, make money, and/or save the world without garnering even 
one vote in an election, because the realm of human endeavor has scope 
for all of these activities in the private sector even more so than in 
the public sector.  Not so with power.  If you want power, real power, 
politics is the only game in town.  Therefore those who enter politics 
with a genuinely noble purpose have an outlet for their sentiments in 
private life, and will feel the call of that life, especially in the 
face of the slings and arrows of public office.  Those who enter 
politics for the power have no outlet.  They must win if they are to 
have what is most important to them.  Being more desperate to obtain or 
retain power, and less concerned with honor and honesty to start with, 
they are more than willing to lie, cheat and slander in order to 
prevail, and more willing to endure whatever lies, cheating and slander 
hinders them.

So not only are the rotters overrepresented among the political class, 
they are even more overrepresented among the victorious of any political 
campaign.

Third, holding power has a distinct negative effect on personal ethics. 
  Simply holding power--or even imagining oneself to have power--has 
been seen in behavioral testing to make a person more likely to lie, 
overestimate their abilities, and excuse their own wrongdoing, and less 
likely to tolerate wrongdoing in others or emphasize with other people.

In short, power attracts the worst among us, winds up in the hands of 
the worst who seek it, and makes anyone who gets it worse people than 
before.

The solution?  Limit the size and power of government.  It is the only 
thing that appears to limit the damage that corrupt politicians can do.

Regards,
John

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