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“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University.” -- Willi
by delichon 10mo ago
“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2,000 people on the faculty of Harvard University.” -- William F. Buckley.
Now more than ever. See "Franchise" (1955) by Isaac Asimov for an efficient version.
- throw310822 10mo agoI'm afraid that mr Buckley would be shocked if he actually met and had a conversation with the first 2000 people in the Boston telephone book.
- Arainach 10mo agoMr. Buckley may or may not be shocked, but he's certainly a vocal opponent of a competent effective government, so all of his thoughts on how he'd prefer to be governed should be ignored with extreme prejudice.
- sirmike_ 10mo agoAccording to YOU. What a very poor all or nothing statement. And the reader should never listen to someone who claims all or nothing here or there. Nope. Perhaps throw a bridle on your unbridled "kindly fuck off nuance" view.
- dragonwriter 10mo agoGenerally, inverting them would be superior to ignoring them, but the last thing you should do is take them as good ideas.
- bongodongobob 10mo agoThe average person can barely read and knows nothing about world history and politics. No thanks.
- boroboro4 10mo agoWould you rather be treated (medically) by the first 2000 people? Do you think code will be written better by the first 2000? I get being unhappy about current political class, but this kind of claims is wild to me.
- delichon 10mo agoI have confidence in the US electoral system to select representatives of more than usual charisma, but not competence or integrity.
- boroboro4 10mo agoIn my opinion even charisma implies higher than average intellect which is already something. We should put more pressure on elected politicians around competence and integrity, sure, but it doesn’t mean random person is going to be better. In the original comparison second category of people have much higher intellect than average.
- delichon 10mo ago> In the original comparison second category of people have much higher intellect than average. I think that intellect may sometimes be weakly and unreliably associated with some kinds of competence, but not with integrity, which is as important. I think power seekers are self-selecting to be more self-serving.
- boroboro4 10mo agoIssue with your original statement is that it implies negative correlation between intellect and being good politician. All the issues you describe (both being self serving and power seeking) apply to anyone regardless to their intellect (and I still think they apply less to people of high intellect just because they see bigger picture, but I might be wrong). We need to optimize for less self serving and more integrity but we should strive for smarter people up there too.
- 10mo ago
- nutjob2 10mo agoThat's called 'Government by Aardman'