22 ms·
> If men would behave decently the world would be decent. Which in turn reminds me of Federalist No. 51: "If men were angels, no government would be necessary
by philipov 3y ago
> If men would behave decently the world would be decent.
Which in turn reminds me of Federalist No. 51:
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. "
- jgalt212 3y agoWithout men, there would be no wars nor skyscrapers. -- Anonymous
- Xorakios 3y agoit's an awesome aphorism, and continues (there are lots of versions and alleged authors): Without men, there would be neither wars or skyscrapers; neither destruction or creation; neither hate nor love. We are not angels but we need not be devils, but without the devils as examples, how to choose right from wrong? There is also: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97379851-without-the-mob-there-is-no-circus https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/97379851-without-the-m...
- MichaelZuo 3y agoThe corpus of literature on designing systems to function smoothly and reliably when filled with mediocre decision makers is neither large nor well known nor inspiring. Hence, most people understandably ignore it or never even read it at all. But these concepts are absolutely critical to ensuring the real world functions.
- candiddevmike 3y agoThis would be a good thing to frame/teach in the context of business management
- hammock 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes?
- dredmorbius 3y agoChecks and balances, electoral accountability, independent branches of government, multiple levels of governance (city, county/parish, state/province, national, global). Independent actors within and outside government. The work of democracy is to continuously resist capture. There is no end of history. There is no state of rest for democracy. Democracy is the work of resisting capture by powerful interests and restoring power-sharing just over and over and over again. -- Danielle Allen, on the Ezra Klein podcast <https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-danielle-allen.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/14/podcasts/ezra-klein-podca...>
- n4r9 3y agoThat's a great quote, as "powerful interests" rightly refers to either government or corporate bodies. A country where the media is lobbied by business is less democratic for it.
- dredmorbius 3y agoLate response, but: yes. There's a reason why I chafe greatly with viewpoints which focus exclusively or even significantly, on, say, corporate vs. government power as the greater evil or risk. I'll note that within the past century, religious power was a frequently-cited risk even amongst great power states (it's largely a factor in less-powerful states, though not entirely absent from today's stage). The true concern is actually power itself, however that is manifested. That might be political, it might be commercial, it might be religious, it might be cultural or social, it might be technological. I'm informed here by the "four estates" (church, nobility, burghers, commoners), sometimes a fifth (press), as well as Lawrence Lessig's Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace: Law, Norms, Market, Architecture. Ultimately, power devolves from some control nexus from which a lesser effort need be asserted than the benefit or result which comes from it.