07-01-2016, 07:53 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."
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.
"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.
Yet, some of my "liberal" friends seem to be pretty fanatic about the benefits of what they think of as "democracy."
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."
Yeah, IMO accountability of elected officials and civil servants is more important for a functioning liberal-democratic government than some populist ideal of strict majoritarianism and direct democracy.
#MakeTheDemocratsGreatAgain