You are also right. Groupthink is the problem. Corporatism (e.g., Nazism) creates its own groupthink. Groupthink is dumb imitation without questioning what one is imitating. Pragmatism, and the need to "know how to be." The question is, is there a way of controlling for groupthink? How might one reconcile individualism with "knowing how to be?" I believe that Christianity might provide some pointers.
-----Original Message----- From: John F Sowa [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2018 3:03 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Democracy (was The real environmental problems... On 6/19/2018 5:18 AM, Stephen Jarosek wrote: > to prove that their government-heavy, groupthink-driven, > corruption-prone initiatives are more effective than the efficiencies > to which lean-and-hungry small-government systems are predisposed. Not > to mention the fake, corrupt science and problems with the peer-review > process as identified by the likes of... Fundamental principle: There is no difference in the kinds of people who go into business, government, academia, and religious orgs. They come from the same backgrounds and go to the same schools. Their ethics, morals, and political acumen are similar -- for better or worse. Big orgs of any kind -- governments, industries, academics, and religions have power -- for good or evil. The amount of power is proportional to the amount of money they have to throw around *and* to the their political connections to other orgs. The biggest businesses are more powerful than all but a few of the governments in the world. In the US, only the federal gov't is bigger than the biggest, and only 3 or 4 states can stand up to them. In recent years, the oligarchs, whose wealth and power has been increasing exponentially since the 1980s, are wielding enormous power with their own wealth and the wealth of the businesses they control. They can buy politicians and collude with other oligarchs to dictate policies to the politicians they bought. The cry for "states rights" is loudest from the oligarchs, because state politicians are cheaper than federal politicians. If they buy up enough state gov'ts, they can control the feds. If you look at history, starting with the Sumerians, democracies are fragile. Only the smallest gov'ts, starting at the village level are true democracies. Larger city-states (Athens for example) could have democracies controlled by the non-slave populations. But eventually, oligarchs (AKA dukes, counts, or billionaires) set up a feudal system to control their city-states. Eventually one of the oligarchs gains enough power to become monarch. Natural progression: Democracy -> Oligarchy -> Monarchy -> Revolution -> Reign of Terror -> Repeat at one of the previous steps. Question: Democracy in the US is in peril. Can it survive? If democracy in the US collapses, what happens to the world? John
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