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Is "democracy" really an unalloyed good now that the Internet has exposed many of the unpatched firmware vulnerabilities in the human mind?

kelnos 9y ago
I don't think it's ever been an unalloyed good, but we still haven't found something better, have we? Maybe we will, but until then, we have to at least push toward what we think is the current "best". And Chinese-style authoritarian... is not it.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
godzillabrennus 9y ago
That's a question you can't even pose about the Chinese system if you live under it. So yes, Democracy is better.
- posterboy 9y ago
  I'm not sure that's true, especially because it questions democracy, not the Chinese equivalent.
forapurpose 9y ago
> the Internet has exposed many of the unpatched firmware vulnerabilities in the human mind These have long been very well known, and in fact those are the problems that democracy is designed to solve: How can humans govern themselves? IIRC, at the dawn of the U.S., it was questioned whether self-governance was possible or whether we needed a king; the question is well answered by now. Democracy takes large groups of flawed humans, the only kind available, and forms them into groups that are more free, more prosperous, more safe, more creative than anything seen in human history. There are about 10,000 years of human history, and the current entire non-democratic world to look at for comparison. All of the most free, prosperous, safe, etc. nations are democracies; the correlation is almost perfect. Even the most free, prosperous regions in China are democratic, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But on a philosophical level, why is a dictator who must be a flawed human - we have no other option - any better than an elected President or Prime Minister who is flawed, or superior to the flawed voters? And how is that dictator selected, without democracy? What better process is there? Why should I submit to their claim of authority - who are they to tell me what to do? Churchill said, reputedly, 'democracy is the worst possible system of government, except for all the others'. (Sorry I don't have time to find or verify the quote.)
- veidr 9y ago
  The Churchill quote is here: https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/ https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-...

kelnos 9y ago

I don't think it's ever been an unalloyed good, but we still haven't found something better, have we? Maybe we will, but until then, we have to at least push toward what we think is the current "best". And Chinese-style authoritarian... is not it.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

godzillabrennus 9y ago

That's a question you can't even pose about the Chinese system if you live under it. So yes, Democracy is better.

posterboy 9y ago
I'm not sure that's true, especially because it questions democracy, not the Chinese equivalent.

forapurpose 9y ago

> the Internet has exposed many of the unpatched firmware vulnerabilities in the human mind These have long been very well known, and in fact those are the problems that democracy is designed to solve: How can humans govern themselves? IIRC, at the dawn of the U.S., it was questioned whether self-governance was possible or whether we needed a king; the question is well answered by now. Democracy takes large groups of flawed humans, the only kind available, and forms them into groups that are more free, more prosperous, more safe, more creative than anything seen in human history. There are about 10,000 years of human history, and the current entire non-democratic world to look at for comparison. All of the most free, prosperous, safe, etc. nations are democracies; the correlation is almost perfect. Even the most free, prosperous regions in China are democratic, Taiwan and Hong Kong. But on a philosophical level, why is a dictator who must be a flawed human - we have no other option - any better than an elected President or Prime Minister who is flawed, or superior to the flawed voters? And how is that dictator selected, without democracy? What better process is there? Why should I submit to their claim of authority - who are they to tell me what to do? Churchill said, reputedly, 'democracy is the worst possible system of government, except for all the others'. (Sorry I don't have time to find or verify the quote.)

veidr 9y ago
The Churchill quote is here: https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/ https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-...