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I think it's a problem with democracy: there is zero incentive to pursue the truth or get things right. As the decisions of governments rarely have direct imme

I think it's a problem with democracy: there is zero incentive to pursue the truth or get things right. As the decisions of governments rarely have direct immediate consequences for your life there also isn't a fast enough feedback loop to correct your mistakes. By mistakes I mean supporting politicians who don't have your interest in mind not even some higher good or whatever. In other words there is no reward for seeking the truth or trying to understand various issues and there is no penalty for being a moron. As long as it's the case it's just a war over who gets to have access to the most efficient propaganda machine to get the gullible masses on their side. I agree it makes sense for the legislators to ensure that's someone local instead of foreign power though. At least they are close enough to the pitchforks if it comes to that.

dmos62 3y ago
That's an interesting train of thought about incentives. I would have said that everyone has an inherent motivation to understand, but now that I think about it, this motivation goes away when group dynamics or poverty start affecting you. Democracy works as long as the majority is lucid, I think. There's no alternative when it's not though. Create financial accountability for long term impact of ruling class decisions? That probably has a million downsides.
- bluecalm 3y ago
  My view is that one way to improve the situation is to move as much power as possible to a local level. Quicker feedback loop, getting to know people you vote for, seeing them work for the community could improve things. I think it's no coincidence that the healthiest democracies are either very small mono cultural countries or ones with a lot of power at local level while universal tendency of power hungry autocracs is to centralise as much power as possible while starving local bodies. One example is absolutely disastrous rules of PiS in Poland for the last 8 years.

dmos62 3y ago

That's an interesting train of thought about incentives. I would have said that everyone has an inherent motivation to understand, but now that I think about it, this motivation goes away when group dynamics or poverty start affecting you. Democracy works as long as the majority is lucid, I think. There's no alternative when it's not though. Create financial accountability for long term impact of ruling class decisions? That probably has a million downsides.

bluecalm 3y ago
My view is that one way to improve the situation is to move as much power as possible to a local level. Quicker feedback loop, getting to know people you vote for, seeing them work for the community could improve things. I think it's no coincidence that the healthiest democracies are either very small mono cultural countries or ones with a lot of power at local level while universal tendency of power hungry autocracs is to centralise as much power as possible while starving local bodies. One example is absolutely disastrous rules of PiS in Poland for the last 8 years.