--- On Sun, 14/6/09, Kiran K Karthikeyan <[email protected]> wrote:
> From: Kiran K Karthikeyan <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: [silk] How do we survive our leaders?
> To: [email protected]
> Date: Sunday, 14 June, 2009, 1:07 PM
> 2009/6/14 Indrajit Gupta <[email protected]>
>
> > This, regrettably, is something like what I suspected
> would emerge.
>
>
> Another way of looking at it is that the leaders that
> emerge are dependent
> on the people they are meant to lead and the system of
> government/management. Given that, two trends are of
> importance - the first
> being that most systems are evolving towards incorporating
> more
> accountability. The second being that while the average
> intelligence of the
> human race has not gone up significantly, the median
> intelligence has (not
> able to find a cite for this). And it can be argued that
> the latter is the
> reason for the former.
>
> So today's leaders are leading smarter people with less
> freedom to do what
> you think is right for the greater good.
>
> Perhaps only those with the "personality disorder" that
> Bruce mentioned
> *can* get elected.
>
> This is obviously simplistic, with no real scientific basis
> - but I think
> this is hole we have dug ourselves, by getting smarter :).
>
> The solution might be to have smaller states and
> consequently lesser people
> that leaders have to lead. In that respect, coalition
> politics that we have
> now in India might be a good thing, if only the smaller
> parties would rise
> above caste/religion etc. and the states are given more
> power.
>
> Kiran
Sorry, Kiran, can't go along with that.
Starting backwards, you are aware that we have generally an indirect
representative democracy. We do not ourselves make the laws, standing or
sitting in Assembly, and thereby flow some of our problems. If we reduced this
by having smaller states, therefore smaller constituencies, leadership or
representatives closer to the people, and so on, the hazards might become less,
is that the plot? Well, it doesn't happen that way. There are dozens of places
where we have small states and the conditions you have defined, but the
malignancy persists.
Nor is direct representation a solution. The Greeks tried that 2,300 years ago;
it didn't work. Just read up on Cleon and the Sicilian expedition, or bad boy
Alcibiades, or the oligopoly after the Spartan victory.
Suffice it to say for the rest that this doesn't seem an explanation at all. I
don't see a connection between the intelligence of the governed and the
malfeasance of the governors.
Explore and discover exciting holidays and getaways with Yahoo! India
Travel http://in.travel.yahoo.com/
