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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site hcrvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!hcr!hcrvax!ken
From: ken@hcrvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: can.politics
Subject: Re: Free trade, Canadian culture, $$
Message-ID: <2735@hcrvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 23-Feb-87 15:02:29 EST
Article-I.D.: hcrvax.2735
Posted: Mon Feb 23 15:02:29 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 24-Feb-87 03:36:29 EST
References: <191@fornax.uucp> <3047@watdcsu.UUCP>
Reply-To: ken@hcrvax.UUCP (ken scott, [decvax,ihnp4]!utzoo!hcr!ken)
Distribution: can
Organization: HCR Corporation, Toronto
Lines: 51
Summary: 

In article <3047@watdcsu.UUCP> brewster@watdcsu.UUCP writes:
>
>    The rights of minorities is an oversold political turkey.  In a democratic
>    state, if the majority of voters support A, then A should happen.  If the
>    majority of voters oppose A, but some minority wants A, then A shouldn't
>    happen.    This is the supposed basis of a democracy.  

So if Jerry Falwell et al can sell the "Moral" Majority philosophy to enough
people, then pre-marital fornication should become illegal.

If Hitler can bamboozle enough Nazis into supporting the Final Solution,
then on with it!

If the 99% of people who don't make more than $200,000 per year vote
that all people who do should have their assets forcibly redistributed,
then let's do it.

In theory, brewster@watdcsu.UUCP may be right.  But political philosophy
must work in practice as well as in theory.  Let's look at reality:

Facts:
-----
* Most people don't have the time to learn enough to make informed
  decisions about important political issues.
* Many people don't have the brains to make informed . . .
* Given a choice between my own personal good and the good of society
  as a whole, most people will choose my own personal good.  See point (1)
  for why they might choose short term personal gain over long term
  societal gain, even when this means they will lose in the long run.
  Obvious examples: tobacco lobbies, the NRA, many polluters, etc.

Opinions (mine)
---------------
Due to the preceding points, we hire politicians not just to implement
the decisions of the masses, but to use brains and integrity, and to take
the time we can't all afford, to make decisions in the best interests of
us all, EVEN WHEN THOSE DECISIONS ARE UNPOPULAR.  Obviously this doesn't
work all the time, but it's the best system we've got.

If we ignore reality and try to implement a simple will-of-the-masses
political system, we will actually wind up with a will-of-the-best-and-
loudest-lobby system.  Many of the ugly problems in our society today
are due to decisions made on that basis already.  Can you say (powerful)
"special interest groups?"

*	*	*	End of tirade	*	*	*	*

Please don't flame me for being a Big Brother politician or something.
I'm not.  All I am trying to do is point out that simplistic blanket
statements such as that to which I am responding inevitably ignore large
sections of reality, and must be read very critically indeed.