John VanSickle <evi### [at] kosherhotmailcom> wrote:
> 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.

A large society (meaning more than a few hundreds of people) cannot work
properly and efficiently without some kind of organization and people who
are in charge of organizing. In order for society to work, everybody (or
at least those who are able) have to work to make it work. But not
everybody can (nor should) have the same tasks. Organizing the tasks and
economy of very large amounts of people just requires a hierarchy of
people to organize it, to lay out plans, to distribute tasks.

Government is a necessity in any society larger than a few hundreds of
people, if that society wants to have standards of living better than
mud huts and hunting-gathering.

Many forms of government have been tried during the entire history of
humanity. So far representative democracy seems to be the one that
achieves the most good with the least amount of negative sides. (One of
its major advantages is that it's, in principle, self-corrective: If
incompetent people end up in the government, they will eventually be
replaced by better candidates. At least in theory. Of course there are
many stumbling blocks in the path of achieving this perfect situation,
psychology being one of the biggest ones.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Le 2012-11-13 21:17, John VanSickle a écrit :
> On 11/6/2012 4:12 AM, scott wrote:
> 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.

It just moves power in the hands of someone else.  If govt is not 
involved in a field, whether it's education, garbage removal, road 
repair, nuclear defense, you name it.  Someone else needs to be in 
charge of it, and that someone is not any more or any less impervious to 
be corrupted by power.

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On 11/14/2012 9:12 AM, Francois Labreque wrote:
> Le 2012-11-13 21:17, John VanSickle a écrit :
>> On 11/6/2012 4:12 AM, scott wrote:
>> 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.
>
> It just moves power in the hands of someone else.  If govt is not
> involved in a field, whether it's education, garbage removal, road
> repair, nuclear defense, you name it.  Someone else needs to be in
> charge of it, and that someone is not any more or any less impervious to
> be corrupted by power.
>
And, when the situation requires immediate solutions, they often lack 
the time, raw resources, people, and access to necessary expertise, to 
actually do the job. There is a reason we don't let corporations, since 
like the very early days, when people first started making paved roads, 
decide which roads get paved. There was this odd tendency for some to 
make crappy roads, for them to place tolls all over, if they bothered to 
make other roads at all, or for them to only build and maintain the 
roads **they** needed. When cities are in charge, the roads suck 
slightly less. When the state is in charge, and they are not 
underfunded, and pushing the money to other crap, it worked well. Right 
up until they "defunded" those projects, in favor of their own biased 
idiocies, and let the roads rot. And so on.

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On 12/11/2012 11:03 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:35:00 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>

>>> I don't think that's a "Godwin"-worthy comment to make.
>>
>> I do.
>
> Obviously, or you wouldn't have invoked it. ;)

First time.


>
> I don't always buy the "slippery slope" argument, but I see what you're
> saying.
>

Not always but it is there and can happen.

> It isn't about voting for the "right" party, though - inasmuch as a party
> doesn't put belief and ideology before demonstrable facts.

Tell that to the marines. ;-)

> IOW, if
> there's a party that declares that the world is flat, people voting for
> those candidates are very clearly voting for someone who doesn't support
> reality as it is.
>

Bad example, I think. Parties like the Monster Raving Loony Party, here 
in the UK are for disaffected voters.

My answers to the following statements are all the same. Maybe it is 
because I am old and disillusioned.

> We expect our doctors to be competent when they provide us care.
>

Hope our doctors...

> We expect people driving cars on the road to demonstrate competence in
> manouvering several thousand pounds of mechanical equipment at high
> speeds.
>

Hope people driving cars...


> We /should/ expect our politicans to have at least a rudimentary
> understanding of the things they're tasked with creating laws around.
>

Hope expect our politicians...

Actually you should expect every other road user is an idiot and drive 
defensively.

> And we /should/ expect those who vote for those politicians to understand
> that that minimally rudimentary understanding aren't denying the facts of
> the world around us.

Cloud cuckoo land, that one IMO.

> That evolution is real, for example.  That climate
> change is happening.  That these things aren't "from the devil" but are
> in fact the way the world works, and that we have to actually /deal/ with
> those issues.
>

I think that is more of an American viewpoint. In Europe only "Big 
Business" supporters would even say that.


> I agree that it should start with better vetting of candidates and
> weeding out those who deny reality in favor of some utopian idea based on
> an idea of what the '50s was like, when everything was perfect and
> sensible and no conflict existed anywhere (or some other rose coloured
> view of their past or childhood).
>

Again, that is American centric. The 50's in Europe was not that good. 
The 50's in Glasgow was a bit of a nightmare actually. I remember 
playing on bomb sites and being told not to play in the green stagnant 
puddles in the street.


>
>> I often wonder if picking politicians at random would be any worse than
>> picking one who put themselves forward.
>
> I'm with you on that.  Maybe something closer to the way the Greeks did
> it - election by lottery - would be a better solution.  At least then it
> wouldn't be a career path (which I think is one of the biggest problems
> in the US political system).
>

Probably. Take our Mr. Blair (please do and try him for war crimes). He 
was a posh boy who picked a side to get into politics. Then proceeded to 
change the Labour party into a mini Tory party so that he could succeed. 
(Not just my opinion)

>>> We require demonstrated competence for driving a motor vehicle and for
>>> many other things we do in our daily lives.  If providing proof of
>>> citizenship is such a high priority, certainly it seems that providing
>>> reasonable proof of competence also should be a high priority.
>>
>> Have you read any Robert Heinlein and do you agree with his views?
>
> I've read a little bit, but I understand some of his views.  There's a
> part of me that agrees with (for example) doing some sort of federal
> service as a precondition to voting.  Not entirely behind that, though,

That is the one I was thinking about.

> but it does seem that giving something to the country - some form of
> sacrifice

Does paying your taxes count?

> - does make for better/more informed voters.  For example, many
> who see combat in the military are unlikely to send others into combat

I am gobsmacked with that one. The lions most likely believe that but 
the donkeys certainly don't. See 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_led_by_donkeys


> unless it's the last resort.  Those who haven't served don't always
> understand what it is they're asking of young soldiers going into combat.
>

I don't think that you can know what it could be like. Unless you happen 
to live an an area where there has been fighting.

> That's not always the case, but those who have been in that situation are
> more likely to make a better-informed decision.
>

Maybe Jon Stewart should be made compulsory viewing over there?

On a lighter not. Did you get the new ISIHAC? It was broadcast on Monday

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 11/11/2012 2:50 AM, Patrick Elliott wrote:
> On 11/10/2012 10:35 AM, Stephen wrote:
>>> We require demonstrated competence for driving a motor vehicle and for
>>> many other things we do in our daily lives.  If providing proof of
>>> citizenship is such a high priority, certainly it seems that providing
>>> reasonable proof of competence also should be a high priority.
>>
>> Have you read any Robert Heinlein and do you agree with his views?
>>
>>
> Yes, and not all of them. He was definitely, for example, a major
> misogynist, and like Ayn Rand, his books can appeal to people that a)
> haven't grown up enough to really think about everything he said, or b)
> don't bother growing up at all. Some of his ideas are not bad, others..
> not so great (unlike Rand, who well...).

I haven't read Rand but when I tried to re-read Heinlein I could not 
because his views got in the way of the story.
I was thinking about having to have had public service (read military) 
before getting the franchise.


-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 14/11/2012 2:17 AM, John VanSickle wrote:
> 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.

I agreed with most of what you said except the above "solution"

In Europe we had about 1500 years of small countries with small 
governments. We also had about 1500 years of constant warfare. Since 
Europe was united after WWII it has been quite peaceful here (not 
counting Ireland and exporting troops to other areas).
IMO we need big governments to protect the common man from big business.


-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On 11/14/2012 11:35 AM, Stephen wrote:
>> It isn't about voting for the "right" party, though - inasmuch as a party
>> doesn't put belief and ideology before demonstrable facts.
>
> Tell that to the marines. ;-)
>
Or any parties.

>> We expect our doctors to be competent when they provide us care.
>>
>
> Hope our doctors...
>
Unless you are, say, Ireland, where you kill a woman, because the 
"Catholic law" says you can save the mother, if needed, but not if the 
baby still has a heart beat. The problem, of course, being the 
definitions of a) endangered and b) heartbeat. Apparently.. "Won't 
live", doesn't count for the later, and the former... well, that only 
counts once septis has set in, and her odds of surviving, even if you do 
something, has been reduced to near 0. Makes you wonder.. If appendixes 
where "sacred", would you have to wait until they burst to remove them too?

One hopes, but isn't at all encouraged, that this will result in 
"something" happening as a consequence.

>> That evolution is real, for example.  That climate
>> change is happening.  That these things aren't "from the devil" but are
>> in fact the way the world works, and that we have to actually /deal/ with
>> those issues.
>>
>
> I think that is more of an American viewpoint. In Europe only "Big
> Business" supporters would even say that.
>
>
Haven't looked at Australia then? Mind, that isn't Europe, but, still. 
Wackos every place. What is worse, a study on the subject showed that 
both skeptics and people that denied climate change, overestimated the 
percentage of the population holding the, "We think its fake.", view. 
The skeptics thought it was as much as 20%, the anti-climate change 
people thought it was more like 45%. The real number was like.. under 
10%, but I don't remember the exact number. What differed the most is 
the refusal of the anti-climate change people in even accepting that 
there was a consensus, at all, among scientists. Bets on the numbers of 
creationism being similar...

>> - does make for better/more informed voters.  For example, many
>> who see combat in the military are unlikely to send others into combat
>
> I am gobsmacked with that one. The lions most likely believe that but
> the donkeys certainly don't. See
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_led_by_donkeys
>
Maybe in Europe.. Over here, it seems like being shot at, and almost 
killed makes one almost as great a hero as throwing a football, and the 
ones that have been in combat think the military is, "too small", and we 
haven't had, "enough wars". This isn't the case of all of them, or even 
a majority, of course, but.. those people are not the ones running for 
office, on the stance that, among all their other idiocies, "We are 
undermining our ability to spread fear to all the people that will then 
attack us, since they don't fear us any more." Uh.. yeah, and somehow I 
can't be surprised we are seeing a remake of Red Dawn, where the high 
school team is the Wolverines. Apparently, only American's fight like 
cornered animals, when invaded, or abused, or treated like shit, or 
threatened, or our professed saviors side with the nutcase next door, 
because they offered an oil deal. Sigh...

In any case, no.. A lot of the people I have seen that have been, "in 
combat", and vote conservative, are completely bloody nuts, and have no 
problem at all getting more people (as long as its someone else this 
time) killed in wars. If this was a criteria for having someone want to 
avoid them, Europe would have found peace during the middle ages, when 
*everyone* was at war with everyone else. Bigger weapons has only scared 
"some" of the people out of this sort of bullshit, "We can win, with 
acceptable casualties!", thinking.

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On 11/4/2012 3:30 AM, Warp wrote:
> I hear that at many places in the United States (although I'm sure it's
> not the only country in the world with this problem, but I get the
> impression that it's one of the worst of its kind) boards of education
> are often staffed by people who are completely illiterate in terms of
> science and education. And it's precisely these people who decide what
> is and isn't taught at schools. Apparently they get to those positions
> for political reasons and because of a buddy system, not because they
> would be the most competent for that position.

In our district there was no political pressure to leave certain topics 
unsaid.  Evolution was as much a part of the curriculum in biology as 
the periodic table was in chemistry.

My experience was that up until seventh grade (children aged 12-13 
years), science education was zilch, and past that point there was very 
little rigor until high school, and then only for those students who 
elected to take the classes where stuff was actually taught.

Politics had nothing to do with it.  The district administration had 
simply decided that science wasn't important.

If I had to lay a finger on one characteristic of our public school 
establishment that is especially bad, I would have to say that it has a 
great tendency to be influenced more by fads than by sound principles.

The New Math was one such fad.  It had a particular theory about how 
math should be taught, and as far as I can tell from looking into it, it 
was implemented on a large scale without any significant testing to see 
if it was as effective as its proponents claimed.  By all accounts it 
was a failure.

Regards,
John

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Stephen <mca### [at] aolcom> wrote:
> Actually you should expect every other road user is an idiot and drive
> defensively.

Slightly tangential, but even that's not enough. You should assume that every
other road user is deadly skilled and *actively trying to kill you*.

:)

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On Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:35:53 +0000, Stephen wrote:

>> I don't always buy the "slippery slope" argument, but I see what you're
>> saying.
>>
> Not always but it is there and can happen.

The solution to dealing with the "slippery slope" isn't to avoid starting 
something that /may/ head that direction, but to be vigilant about when 
things start sliding.

>> It isn't about voting for the "right" party, though - inasmuch as a
>> party doesn't put belief and ideology before demonstrable facts.
> 
> Tell that to the marines. ;-)

???  I don't understand.

> Bad example, I think. Parties like the Monster Raving Loony Party, here
> in the UK are for disaffected voters.

Better to include a "none of the above" option on the ballot, I think.

> Actually you should expect every other road user is an idiot and drive
> defensively.

That's about our individual behaviour, though - we still expect (or 
"hope" if you wish) that those who have earned a license demonstrated 
some basic competency in driving a motor vehicle.

And most of the time, that's a valid expectation to have, otherwise there 
would be far more accidents.

>> And we /should/ expect those who vote for those politicians to
>> understand that that minimally rudimentary understanding aren't denying
>> the facts of the world around us.
> 
> Cloud cuckoo land, that one IMO.

I'm not that disillusioned yet. ;)

>> That evolution is real, for example.  That climate change is happening.
>>  That these things aren't "from the devil" but are in fact the way the
>> world works, and that we have to actually /deal/ with those issues.
>>
> I think that is more of an American viewpoint. In Europe only "Big
> Business" supporters would even say that.

Sure, but my frame of reference is American politics, where we have 
idiots like Broun, Akin (no more), and Mourdock (again, no more).

>> I agree that it should start with better vetting of candidates and
>> weeding out those who deny reality in favor of some utopian idea based
>> on an idea of what the '50s was like, when everything was perfect and
>> sensible and no conflict existed anywhere (or some other rose coloured
>> view of their past or childhood).
>>
> Again, that is American centric. The 50's in Europe was not that good.

See above re: my own frame of reference.  Those in the US who pine for a 
"better, simpler time" are pining for the world of "Leave it to Beaver", 
an idyllic, perfect world where there were no problems, unlike today 
where everything is someone else's fault.  (That view, incidentally, is 
most often put forth by the Republican party, which ironically bills 
itself as the "party of personal responsibility" - but they won't take 
responsibility for anything *they* do, and try to shift the blame for the 
current situation to anyone *but* them).

> The 50's in Glasgow was a bit of a nightmare actually. I remember
> playing on bomb sites and being told not to play in the green stagnant
> puddles in the street.

I'd believe that. :)

> Probably. Take our Mr. Blair (please do and try him for war crimes). He
> was a posh boy who picked a side to get into politics. Then proceeded to
> change the Labour party into a mini Tory party so that he could succeed.
> (Not just my opinion)

I'd take your Blair if you'd take our Bush Jr., Cheney, and Rumsfeld.

>> I've read a little bit, but I understand some of his views.  There's a
>> part of me that agrees with (for example) doing some sort of federal
>> service as a precondition to voting.  Not entirely behind that, though,
> 
> That is the one I was thinking about.

That's what I guessed. ;)

>> but it does seem that giving something to the country - some form of
>> sacrifice
> 
> Does paying your taxes count?

That's a tough one.  On the one hand, yes - but it's more or less a 
passive activity, like paying your phone bill.

>> - does make for better/more informed voters.  For example, many who see
>> combat in the military are unlikely to send others into combat
> 
> I am gobsmacked with that one. The lions most likely believe that but
> the donkeys certainly don't. See
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_led_by_donkeys

I think it makes a difference if it's the lions making that decision or 
someone who remembers what it was to be a donkey (to extend the metaphor) 
in the heat of battle.

I think there also is a difference in the experience between those two 
groups - military leaders who got there not through combat experience but 
by being in the officer corps are different than those who enlist and 
work their way up through the ranks.

>> unless it's the last resort.  Those who haven't served don't always
>> understand what it is they're asking of young soldiers going into
>> combat.
>>
> I don't think that you can know what it could be like. Unless you happen
> to live an an area where there has been fighting.

Personally, I can't - and I wouldn't want to be in a position of making 
such a decision, because I haven't lived it.

>> That's not always the case, but those who have been in that situation
>> are more likely to make a better-informed decision.
>>
> Maybe Jon Stewart should be made compulsory viewing over there?

LOL - I do find his perspective to be extremely interesting - and over 
the past couple of years, he's just gotten that much better, taking it to 
a whole other level.  Watched him interview/debate Newt Gingrich a few 
days ago, and it was quite good.

> On a lighter not. Did you get the new ISIHAC? It was broadcast on Monday

I hadn't when you wrote this (busy week, hopefully have an interview in 
the next couple of weeks and I've been prepping for it as well as doing 
the contract work), but I have now.  Enjoyed it very much - and 
appreciated the reminder that it was that time again. :)

Jim

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