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>A good dictator would be really effective and could do tremendous amount of good. The downside is that generally in a dictatorship, the ruler could also be an
by iskander 17y ago
>A good dictator would be really effective and could do tremendous amount of good. The downside is that generally in a dictatorship, the ruler could also be an evil dictator and cause lots of damage.
I don't think this is quite right, since it assumes the possibility of a sufficiently good dictator.
- iuguy 17y agoI think they have happened over time, just not regularly and as with many disciplines, the bad and mediocre tend to outweigh the good, but if you consider Julius Caesar, Alfred the Great, Saladin, Suleyman the Magnificent and Ataturk, then actually there are a few (perhaps more historically than now due to the lower prevalence of current opportunities for would-be dictators).
- jerf 17y agoWe have historical evidence that there can exist a "good" dictator for an iron-age society. I don't think such a thing can exist for a silicon-age society; it's too complex to run, and inefficiencies you can ignore in the iron age make you grotesquely uncompetitive in the silicon age. That people in the 21st century still think centralizing everything is the answer to any problem is a testament to the continuing power of the Utopian Dream to override reason. (This is a parenthetical; I am not saying iuguy is advocating it.)