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Your points on the "mathematics" point out problems with the structure of this "spoils" system. The system requires constants readjustment, complete replacemen

Your points on the "mathematics" point out problems with the structure of this "spoils" system. The system requires constants readjustment, complete replacement, or removal to satisfy the changing numbers. In regards to: "No one...and I mean no one except the truly brainwashed...wants equality when superiority is available." I guess you will have to classify me as brainwashed. The desire for superiority is an ill that should be "brainwashed" out of those that suffer from it.

mynameishere 17y ago
This is an entrepreneur-focused website, and so I doubt you would read it without being interested in personal superiority. (Maybe that word has a bad connotation.) Everybody but the mentally-damaged wants to be better as opposed to worse, above as opposed to under. Everyone in college is trying to avoid waiting tables rather than sitting at them.
- jhancock 17y ago
  Yeah, I think the word superiority is not the best term for what you're describing. The trouble I have with the way you present this I do not view "winning" as being a situation where others "lose". I believe I can be "better" without taking away from others. "Give more than you take" is the method I try to use.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  This is an entrepreneur-focused website Yes, so I think many participants here would consider it beneath their dignity to use the political system to gain benefits that they can gain by trading in the free market. Some people do indeed use the political system as a spoils system, but I wouldn't title someone an entrepreneur who does that.
- gjm11 17y ago
  Equivocation on the contrast between "equality" and "superiority". The goal of equality claimed by the civil rights movement -- which you say was really aiming at "superiority", which I think would be news to the white people involved at the very least -- was not that of a society in which every person ends up in exactly the same situation; it was of a society in which people don't have systematically worse opportunities because they are black or because all their ancestors were slaves or whatever. Aiming at equality in that sense is not the least bit incompatible with hoping to succeed by being clever and working hard to do something that others value. If the Racism Fairy appeared before me and told me that I could have a life that was "better as opposed to worse, above as opposed to under" by (say) stealing half the property of all the black people in the country and giving it to white people -- I happen to be white, so I'd gain rather than lose from that -- then I would turn down that offer. If the Anti-Racism Fairy appeared instead and offered to obliterate every vestige of racial prejudice, but warned that it would make white people (including me) slightly worse off, I'd say yes in a flash. And if you don't believe me because you think "kto kogo?" is the only question, then fuck you and the (doubtless white) horse you rode in on.

mynameishere 17y ago

This is an entrepreneur-focused website, and so I doubt you would read it without being interested in personal superiority. (Maybe that word has a bad connotation.) Everybody but the mentally-damaged wants to be better as opposed to worse, above as opposed to under. Everyone in college is trying to avoid waiting tables rather than sitting at them.

jhancock 17y ago
Yeah, I think the word superiority is not the best term for what you're describing. The trouble I have with the way you present this I do not view "winning" as being a situation where others "lose". I believe I can be "better" without taking away from others. "Give more than you take" is the method I try to use.
tokenadult 17y ago
This is an entrepreneur-focused website Yes, so I think many participants here would consider it beneath their dignity to use the political system to gain benefits that they can gain by trading in the free market. Some people do indeed use the political system as a spoils system, but I wouldn't title someone an entrepreneur who does that.
gjm11 17y ago
Equivocation on the contrast between "equality" and "superiority". The goal of equality claimed by the civil rights movement -- which you say was really aiming at "superiority", which I think would be news to the white people involved at the very least -- was not that of a society in which every person ends up in exactly the same situation; it was of a society in which people don't have systematically worse opportunities because they are black or because all their ancestors were slaves or whatever. Aiming at equality in that sense is not the least bit incompatible with hoping to succeed by being clever and working hard to do something that others value. If the Racism Fairy appeared before me and told me that I could have a life that was "better as opposed to worse, above as opposed to under" by (say) stealing half the property of all the black people in the country and giving it to white people -- I happen to be white, so I'd gain rather than lose from that -- then I would turn down that offer. If the Anti-Racism Fairy appeared instead and offered to obliterate every vestige of racial prejudice, but warned that it would make white people (including me) slightly worse off, I'd say yes in a flash. And if you don't believe me because you think "kto kogo?" is the only question, then fuck you and the (doubtless white) horse you rode in on.