--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, bob_brigante <no_reply@> > wrote: <snip> > > People have embraced democracy because good people are > > not available to be rulers... > > People have embraced democracy because it's a good idea.
Exactly. It's a good idea because, as Bob says, we can't count on good people being available as rulers. > Only sheep are looking for "good rulers." You seem > to be one of them. Baaaaaa, dude. :-) That would depend, of course, on what one means by "rulers." > > ...but this is only a temporary phase in human history. > > It's been "temporary" so far for pretty much the full > *length* of human history. I suspect it will remain > equally "temporary" for the *rest* of human history. Actually, the phrase "human history" has two meanings, depending on the context. It can mean *recorded* history; or it can mean the entire course of human existence, including what happened before records began to be kept (or at least records that have survived). So one can make the statement that Kali Yuga has been "temporary for the full length of human history" only if one means "history" in the first sense, i.e., recorded history. That period is the only one we can have any objective knowledge of. > > When enlightened people are found again on earth, the > > people will dump democracy's inefficiencies and > > inherent unfairness (majority rule means that the > > majority will always repress the minority) and live > > with kings again. > > That is possible. There are a *lot* of people who are > afraid of taking responsibility for their own lives, > and who are hoping desperately for Santa Claus to come > along and "rule" them and tell them what to do all the > time so they never have to make any decisions ever again. > Most people call this form of government a cult. You > seem happier with the term Sat Yuga. Whatever. To me, this assertion represents a certain lack of imagination. It seems to me within the range of possibility that "enlightened dictatorship" could involve a style of governance quite different from any that we are familiar with in the "real world," one that would *give* people responsibility for their own lives rather than taking it away from them. Even those forms of governance we know about that grant people the greatest measure of responsibility nevertheless restrict that responsibility in some areas. As Bob points out, democracy can result in a "tyranny of the majority," in which only the majority is granted full responsibility (and even its responsibility may be curtained in some ways). Plus which, even in nations that are supposedly governed according to the highest ideals of democracy, those ideals can be subverted and corrupted--as we are seeing today in the United States, for example--when leaders take power who are not committed to the principles of democracy set out in their nation's charter. Churchill's famous aphorism about government--that democracy is the worst system of governance ever devised, except for all the rest--may be germane here. Whether an "enlightened dictatorship" could remedy the deficiencies of our current systems of government is unknown, but to proclaim that it could *only* function by telling people "what to do all the time so they never have to make any decisions ever again" seems to require a pinched and limited ability to conceive of possibilities. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Join modern day disciples reach the disfigured and poor with hope and healing http://us.click.yahoo.com/lMct6A/Vp3LAA/i1hLAA/UlWolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
