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View Full Version : Is Democracy the best option?


trustt
2008-12-20, 00:50
Is having Freedom the best thing in the world? aren't other countries like China, Cuba developing ?

dagnabitt
2008-12-20, 01:31
Are you equating democracy with freedom?

Knight of blacknes
2008-12-20, 01:54
The best thing would be a monitor in which everyones desires are put in and it compares it too all possible solutions and gives the best as output. Democracy tries to do something similar but falls short in many ways.

ReclaimPublicSpace
2008-12-20, 05:36
It all depends on your beliefs about human nature. If you think people are well-equipped enough to be able to make the correct decisions for themselves then democracy is the best option. If you believe the "unwashed masses" are uninformed, uneducated and ignorant then they shouldnt be running a government.

There are pros and cons to each system. Authoritarian governments are much more efficient than democracies because there is no squabbling: if someone dissents, they are silenced. But democracy furthers the spread of different ideas and views and provides for competition.

I, as an anarchist (ideally), hope that one day people will become more motivated to study politics and current affairs and will therefore be able to make decisions regarding their well-being. Knowledge is power. Look at the 2008 elections. People voted for Obama just cuz he was black, or voted for McCain because Obama was a "terrorist" and a "Muslim".

fretbuzz
2008-12-20, 05:37
America: Home of the free-est and ever increasingly free-less.

When it comes to government, there isn't a best option. Someone will always be unhappy.

Chimro
2008-12-20, 07:14
Are you equating democracy with freedom?

This. If the average peons were given free-reign they'd take away every last crumb of freedom, including the right to vote.

Chimro
2008-12-20, 07:16
America: Home of the free-est and ever increasingly free-less.

When it comes to government, there isn't a best option. Someone will always be unhappy.

America is a constitutional republic. If it was just a plain democracy, you'd see hate laws and guns banned tomorrow.

easeoflife22
2008-12-20, 07:21
It's the best option, considering that all government systems are flawed. There is no real way of developing a really well functioning government. A more educated population wouldn't really make a difference, but developing more well rounded and innovative politicians, would be a much better priority. If every party had excellent candidates, there would be no bad vote. In the end, I don't think the problem is with the political system, but rather the gauntlet of problems created by a diverse population that most western cultures these days face. It's really hard to keep everyone happy, and anticipating economic and global issues, is pretty chaotic at best. I think the Canadian governments function quite well, considering the challenges they face. I only ask for transparency, as expecting no mistakes to be made, is not a reasonable thing to hope for. In short, the world isn't perfect, and neither will our governments ever be.

dagnabitt
2008-12-20, 15:48
Democracy is a patchwork heuristic at best.

I believe it has implications which would be good for a political system, as long the voting populus had a basic understanding of things, which more often is not the case. An uneducated populus means only that the most manipulative politicians will win most of the time. And this is no democracy.

Democracy is a system of personal compromise at best, and a system of abusive power at worst. It may be the best option, out of many, but to equate it with "freedom" or some political ideal, as Americans like to, is fucking retarded.

easeoflife22
2008-12-20, 21:08
Democracy is a patchwork heuristic at best.

I believe it has implications which would be good for a political system, as long the voting populus had a basic understanding of things, which more often is not the case. An uneducated populus means only that the most manipulative politicians will win most of the time. And this is no democracy.

Democracy is a system of personal compromise at best, and a system of abusive power at worst. It may be the best option, out of many, but to equate it with "freedom" or some political ideal, as Americans like to, is fucking retarded.

Education is useless, when people are too dumb to understand the knowledge necessary to make educated choices. I don't imagine the common man understanding economics, sociology, or foreign affairs any time soon. Your ability to manipulate others is essentially the cornerstone of success in this world. Strong willed people always rise to the top. You are right though, real democracy doesn't exist, and let's be thankful it doesn't.

Knight of blacknes
2008-12-20, 21:53
The best option would be me ruling as supreme emperor over the world.

killallthewhiteman
2008-12-21, 07:11
The idea that democracy represents everyone is bullshit, its majority rules and even then proportional systems assume aggregate ontology is defined numerically.

And then there's the fact that voting is not mandatory meaning half of people vote.

alooha from hell
2008-12-22, 03:33
the problem is that all systems of government and distribution of power all work really well in small groups, even in medium sized groups. but on mass scales of millions of people, nothing we have come up with so far works.

it's obvious that the current systems are flawed, but no better system has yet to be developed. unfortunately, democracy sucks, but it's way better than any other system at the moment; for the most part at least.

JesuitArtiste
2008-12-25, 16:48
Well, personally I think that the idea of government in the Republic is a good one. As in having a catse that are brought up to the specific role of governing the people and making the decisions.

It seems to me that democracy can be pretty ineffective, as not everyone is as qualified to make certain decisions, not to mention sometimes people are swayed more about personal details of a person than their ability to rule effectively.

Big problem I see is the possibility of corruption creeping in and fucking up the entire thing.

nshanin
2008-12-26, 00:55
Democracy according to affect is the best option. This one person, one vote thing is bullshit.

republic
2008-12-26, 05:58
Bullshit is: having to wake up every morning and worry about what new social policies are going to be imposed upon your life by a group of pseudo-intellectual, corrupted old men in a room 1,000 miles away, whom you don't care about and who don't care about you.

That is what bullshit is.

nshanin
2008-12-26, 06:30
Bullshit is: having to wake up every morning and worry about what new social policies are going to be imposed upon your life by a group of pseudo-intellectual, corrupted old men in a room 1,000 miles away, whom you don't care about and who don't care about you.

That is what bullshit is.

We disagree on nothing.