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>Not playing politics doesn't make you wiser or smarter, it just makes you a schmuck, because someone that plays politics will come around and eat your lunch.

>Not playing politics doesn't make you wiser or smarter, it just makes you a schmuck, because someone that plays politics will come around and eat your lunch. That's not an argument to play politics. That's an argument as to why the system is fundamentally flawed.

sillysaurus3 13y ago
It's the only system we have. The system can theoretically change itself, but that's not going to happen by abstaining from it.
- supergeek133 13y ago
  The approach can just change. If YC wants to come out and say "I support policy XY and/or Z" and I go find the candidate that matches that, awesome! I'm sick of businesses endorsing people or party via fundraiser. Support an idea, not a person. Let the voter decide the person.
- coherentpony 13y ago
  No, it's going to happen when the people do something. Unfortunately, the people that have influence are the people that have the money. Money talks, and more money talks louder. Companies and the well-endowed are in the privileged position of having the politicians' ears to complain to.
coherentpony 13y ago
Wow, just look at all those butthurt downvotes sans open discussion. Great job, HN. Great job.
zenbowman 13y ago
I think its attributable to fact that we are social animals. Politics is just the art of socializing at a large scale.
stcredzero 13y ago
That's an argument as to why the system is fundamentally flawed. Then humans are fundamentally flawed. So are all social animals. To borrow a phrase: Politics is the worst paradigm within which sentients can settle disputes while minimizing suffering -- except all of the others. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/quotes What are the alternatives to politics? Doesn't human rights come out of politics in which individuals have a small but significant agency which can be aggregated to create collective agencies of vast power? Maybe there is a far more rational way of organizing groups of sentients completely apart from politics, and political social animals are regarded as an atavistic scourge in the galaxy. This is why the aliens don't talk to us. They can't trust us, but since we're sentient as individuals, they can't ethically kill us either. Perhaps this is the solution to the Fermi paradox.

sillysaurus3 13y ago

It's the only system we have. The system can theoretically change itself, but that's not going to happen by abstaining from it.

supergeek133 13y ago
The approach can just change. If YC wants to come out and say "I support policy XY and/or Z" and I go find the candidate that matches that, awesome! I'm sick of businesses endorsing people or party via fundraiser. Support an idea, not a person. Let the voter decide the person.
coherentpony 13y ago
No, it's going to happen when the people do something. Unfortunately, the people that have influence are the people that have the money. Money talks, and more money talks louder. Companies and the well-endowed are in the privileged position of having the politicians' ears to complain to.

coherentpony 13y ago

Wow, just look at all those butthurt downvotes sans open discussion. Great job, HN. Great job.

zenbowman 13y ago

I think its attributable to fact that we are social animals. Politics is just the art of socializing at a large scale.

stcredzero 13y ago

That's an argument as to why the system is fundamentally flawed. Then humans are fundamentally flawed. So are all social animals. To borrow a phrase: Politics is the worst paradigm within which sentients can settle disputes while minimizing suffering -- except all of the others. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091064/quotes What are the alternatives to politics? Doesn't human rights come out of politics in which individuals have a small but significant agency which can be aggregated to create collective agencies of vast power? Maybe there is a far more rational way of organizing groups of sentients completely apart from politics, and political social animals are regarded as an atavistic scourge in the galaxy. This is why the aliens don't talk to us. They can't trust us, but since we're sentient as individuals, they can't ethically kill us either. Perhaps this is the solution to the Fermi paradox.