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This made me extremely sad: Over the last decade, the Western political system has lost its claim to global preeminence; it is no longer certain whether democr
by mixmax 17y ago
This made me extremely sad:
Over the last decade, the Western political system has lost its claim to global preeminence; it is no longer certain whether democracy will eventually prevail everywhere. In fact, it is not even certain that it will last forever in Western countries.
- randallsquared 17y agoThat would only necessarily be bad if you believe democracy is an end in and of itself, or the theoretical pinnacle of governmental systems for freedom or whatever else your end goal is.
- mixmax 17y agoI like your positivity, maybe something better than democracy will emerge. As Churchill said "Democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried" I felt sad because the article implied that the decline of democracy might imply the rise of totalitarian rule.
- mattlanger 17y agoKeep in mind that the article culminated with two key arguments, first that "the Western way of life is coming under pressure from two sides at once, Islam and climate change" and second that "the West can still be strong, provided it remains true to itself, its concept of humanity, which is based on Christian ideas, and democracy". That the author seems to view the present through the lens of a struggle between Islam and Christianity, it is somewhat unsurprising that he should view the future through the similarly black-and-white lens of Western democracy v. totalitarianism.
- euroclydon 17y agoIslam and climate change: Now those are some strange bedfellows.
- pwnstigator 17y agoIf you ask Bush, Iran is responsible for Katrina. They've found hurricane factories 40 km west of Tehran.
- pwnstigator 17y agoI think corporatism (the same corporatism as was the precursor to Italian fascism) is the most likely threat. Most Americans want affordable, high-quality healthcare, but they're unlikely to get it in this political environment, since most of our politicians (e.g. Joe Liebermann) are owned by insurance companies. This, and the continuation of an unpopular war, are signs that our democracy is starting to falter.
- houseabsolute 17y agoIt's not hard to come up with sad but unlikely eventualities. The question is whether any of this article's hypothesis are true. This question is far from settled. For example, the whole retreat to an infantile world bit. The examples are cherry-picked. In television, the most acclaimed and talked about shows have characters far more ambiguous than decades past. Even in movies, the idea of inferring a trend from but two datapoints that are almost by definition outliers (I.e. the record-setters) is sensational but unsound. I've only read some of the article. But of what I did read 100% was bullshit of similar provenance. I don't trust it.
- pwnstigator 17y agoFor example, the whole retreat to an infantile world bit. The examples are cherry-picked. In television, the most acclaimed and talked about shows have characters far more ambiguous than decades past. We're exiting postmodernism in favor of a world less nihilistic and relativistic, which makes heroism attractive, even when the hero is morally questionable (e.g. Jack Bauer, Dr. House). On the other hand, casual sex is as common as ever, so nihilism and self-loathing haven't gone away entirely.
- anamax 17y ago> which makes heroism attractive, even when the hero is morally questionable (e.g. Jack Bauer, Dr. House). What's "morally questionable" about House? Is it his hitting on the Cuddy? Yes, he's a jerk, but that's different from being morally questionable. > casual sex is as common as ever, so nihilism and self-loathing haven't gone away entirely. Huh? Casual sex can be an expression of nihilism and self-loathing, but aren't necessarily.
- pwnstigator 17y agoBy "questionable" I mean "can be questioned". I'm not using the euphemistic definition, whereby "questionable" means the question is already answered. Dr. House behaves in a way that would generally be considered ethical, but that is at odds with medical protocol (because his cases are always exceptional and odd). Most people wouldn't call this wrong, but it is "questionable", when the word is taken at face value. Huh? Casual sex can be an expression of nihilism and self-loathing, but aren't necessarily. In theory, you're right. In practice, "hookup culture" is founded on the humiliation of the woman, which makes it an expression of loathing for humanity.
- byrneseyeview 17y agoIt makes you sad that this isn't the best we can do?
- riffic 17y agopure democracy is kind of a foolish goal anyways. pure democracies are best left at an extremely local level.