07-01-2016, 04:18 PM
(07-01-2016, 12:35 PM)TnT Wrote: Another thought to challenge "us liberals!"
Someone once said something like, "The summation of individual ignorance does not lead to collective wisdom."
Fifty idiots do not have the wisdom of one genius. There is no such thing as collective wisdom. Wisdom is individual or it is non-existent.
Quote:And there it is: Phenomena like the Trump revolution suggests that democracy itself suffers from a terrible weakness. That weakness is that without a fair amount of discipline on the part of a democratic society to make sure that its citizens are well-educated, it can devolve into this simplistic, boorish braying of bumper-stickers that is taken by a very large and very dangerous fraction of the society to be "wisdom." Or "common sense" as they call it.
Terrible or terminal? Even if Donald Trump loses we are have a chance to find someone just as demagogic but far slicker. The next Republican nominee could promise economic growth if only we give all power to the Master Class.
We have badly debased education into training. We have given up on teaching the critical thought necessary for discerning truth from falsehood. We think education successful if it gets one a job in a fast-food place or a box store, places in which rigid obedience matters far more than does problem-solving. We prepare people to be the working poor, satisfied with watching mindless television after doing mindless work, such being all that one can do.
Quote:"Elites" seem to me to be inevitable. Some folks are just more talented in one area or another. Some are simply smarter in one area or another. Some of these areas can be very destructive. Others can be extremely valuable and yet have little in the way of power over influencing the structure of society.
The competent who get a chance will always do better than the incompetent who get a chance. There is no conspiracy about that even if some see the mirage of conspiracy.
Quote:Yet, some of my "liberal" friends seem to be pretty fanatic about the benefits of what they think of as "democracy."
Democracy can fail catastrophically to ruthless people who exploit the seams. It has happened before and it can happen when political stresses overpower the constraints against anarchy and despotism. Just think of American government by lobbyists.
Quote:In the absence of certain boundaries or control systems, i don't have much confidence in "democracy." Especially the bigger it gets. I'd rather have smart, thoughtful people in charge, than impulsive ignoramuses who just "do shit."[/quote]
Maybe we need to see democracy come close to failing. (Excuse me -- it may have in America due to our effective government by lobbyists). We may need to see disgrace that compels us to close some of the seams within our system.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.