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From: jim@ism780c.UUCP (Jim Balter)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: In the Name of God
Message-ID: <1111@ism780c.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 26-Mar-86 17:19:30 EST
Article-I.D.: ism780c.1111
Posted: Wed Mar 26 17:19:30 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Mar-86 09:31:12 EST
References: <1680@ihlpg.UUCP> <11000126@uiucdcsb> <60@gilbbs.UUCP> <600@kontron.UUCP> <641@mmm.UUCP> <642@kontron.UUCP>
Reply-To: jim@ism780c.UUCP (Jim Balter)
Organization: Interactive Systems Corp., Santa Monica, CA
Lines: 28

In article <642@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes:
>
>> "The majority of the stupid is invincible and guaranteed for all time. The 
>>  terror of their tyranny, however, is alleviated by their lack of consistency."
>> 						- Albert Einstein
>
>Thanks for admitting democracy is a stupid idea.

Einstein wasn't saying anything about democracy.
Within any elite, the majority is still likely to be stupid.
And those in power always retain that power through the efforts of the
stupid, whether voters in a republic or soldiers in a more force-oriented
system.

You may think that democracy is a stupid idea, but it is an inevitable idea.
Those with power will always to act some degree against the interests of those
without power, and that degree will eventually become sufficient that those
without power will become willing to challenge those with power (consider SA).
Once a group has accepted the idea that they can have or deserve power, they
will not readily give up this idea.  Power will fluctuate among these groups
largely according to their access of coercive tools.
Political systems arise out of complex interactions of social forces, not out
of the intellectual "stupidity" or "intelligence" of the system.  This is a
major problem I see with Libertarians and other Utopianists.  They seem to
think that if they just write the right set of laws everything will fall into
place.
-- 
-- Jim Balter ({sdcrdcf!ism780c,ima}!jim)