4 ms·

No system of government really works that well because most people "defect" in the sense of the prisoners dilemma. So instead of working for the public good, t

by smky80 13y ago

No system of government really works that well because most people "defect" in the sense of the prisoners dilemma. So instead of working for the public good, the government ultimately becomes a means of exploiting the public good for powerful individuals' advantage. Pretty much everyone government ultimately devolves into a form of "mafia" -- a relatively tight network of powerful individuals united by some fairly strong bond such as familial/ethnic ties. This network can count on each other to "cooperate" and not "defect", while the public/masses just can't coordinate and cooperate enough to oppose them.

asgard1024 13y ago
Every society is subject to the problem you are talking about. That's why humans actually evolved to go at lengths to punish anybody who does defect. Without this sense (for fairness), no society could function. And as you correctly point out, mafia is the subject of the same rule. (That's why you usually get either a rigid hierarchical system or democracy, not so much a system where a large portion of population democratically controls the rest - that's unstable.) The key in democracy is exactly what it says on the tin - one person one vote. This is much more stable to this devolution, because other people in society can observe when this rule is broken by anybody and take action. Thanks to this, much less energy is required for infighting, and people can be happier.
- smky80 13y ago
  > humans actually evolved to go at lengths to punish anybody who does defect They might have initially, but I'll make the argument that probably since the dawn of agriculture, and the generation of large societal surpluses, evolution has been pushing humanity towards defection. I think recent experience in the US shows quite clearly that votes don't really matter, only money does. Moreover votes can be manufactured through the media (money).

by smky80 13y ago

asgard1024 13y ago

Every society is subject to the problem you are talking about. That's why humans actually evolved to go at lengths to punish anybody who does defect. Without this sense (for fairness), no society could function. And as you correctly point out, mafia is the subject of the same rule. (That's why you usually get either a rigid hierarchical system or democracy, not so much a system where a large portion of population democratically controls the rest - that's unstable.) The key in democracy is exactly what it says on the tin - one person one vote. This is much more stable to this devolution, because other people in society can observe when this rule is broken by anybody and take action. Thanks to this, much less energy is required for infighting, and people can be happier.

smky80 13y ago
> humans actually evolved to go at lengths to punish anybody who does defect They might have initially, but I'll make the argument that probably since the dawn of agriculture, and the generation of large societal surpluses, evolution has been pushing humanity towards defection. I think recent experience in the US shows quite clearly that votes don't really matter, only money does. Moreover votes can be manufactured through the media (money).