3 ms·

But the Founding Fathers were more inspired by Sparta than Athens (source: documentary by History Channel). Sparta had not just a constitution and voting, but a

by b0rsuk 9y ago

But the Founding Fathers were more inspired by Sparta than Athens (source: documentary by History Channel). Sparta had not just a constitution and voting, but also a couple of institutions: * two kings (equivalent of president) * apella (public voting for males over 30...) * ephors (ministers) * gerusia (elders... so senate ? In practice they held the most power and Sparta was an oligarchy) Remember that Athenians voted to sentence Socrates to death. Philosophers delighted in trolling, and Socrates specialized in inconvenient questions. Soon they regretted that because they needed his advice. But it was too late. * * * The issue is not that the decisions aren't perfect. Ignorant people are disturbingly easy to manipulate into voting. Stupid people can be outright dangerous. I think Carlo M. Cipolla argued it best: from social perspective, a stupid person is a person who causes harm to you while not getting any benefit for it or even getting hurt himself in the process. Maybe (instead of age requirement?) there should be some kind of "public affairs" test based on knowledge of what happened in the last few years ? Something like that.

jamiek88 9y ago
Then you end up back at Jim Crow laws. Look at how much ‘voting fraud’ is being used in certain states to apply conditions to voting and how it affects turnout. There is just no good way to do such tests in a fully enfranchised democracy. It’s like parent tests or licenses people occasionally think of, ive thought it myself ‘no way should that scumbag be allowed to breed’ when reading about terrible abuse etc., but again those rules can and will end up applied to social undesirables and who decides that? Rosa Parks was socially undesirable.
whatshisface 9y ago
A huge fraction of "stupidity" is actually owed to engineered propaganda. The "public affairs" that one hears about are almost entirely dependent on the filter bubble blown by the media sources a person trusts. You could do a very good job of filtering by political party based on what current events a person had seen in their news. Whoever wrote the test would control which culture-bubbles got to vote.

by b0rsuk 9y ago

jamiek88 9y ago

Then you end up back at Jim Crow laws. Look at how much ‘voting fraud’ is being used in certain states to apply conditions to voting and how it affects turnout. There is just no good way to do such tests in a fully enfranchised democracy. It’s like parent tests or licenses people occasionally think of, ive thought it myself ‘no way should that scumbag be allowed to breed’ when reading about terrible abuse etc., but again those rules can and will end up applied to social undesirables and who decides that? Rosa Parks was socially undesirable.

whatshisface 9y ago

A huge fraction of "stupidity" is actually owed to engineered propaganda. The "public affairs" that one hears about are almost entirely dependent on the filter bubble blown by the media sources a person trusts. You could do a very good job of filtering by political party based on what current events a person had seen in their news. Whoever wrote the test would control which culture-bubbles got to vote.