[extropy-chat] A view of what politics is.

[Giu1i0 Pri5c0]

I think Brett gives a good definition of what politics *should be*.
If a resource that everyone needs is scarce we can either shoot each
other or trying to find a mutually acceptable agreement. This is
called politics.
Unfortunately in the real world things that have nothing to do with
resource allocation becomes a part of the political debate. Take gay
marriage for example - two adults of the same sex who want to get
married do not take anything out of my pocket, or in general do not
take any resource away from me, so I do not think such things should
be part of politics.
G.


On 10/11/05, Brett Paatsch <bpaatsch at bigpond.net.au> wrote:
>
> A couple of people posted me off list asking what I thought politics was.
> I wrote.
>
> ------
>
> I think politics is behaviour that arises when there is a recognition
> that some mutually desired resource is scarce.
>
> Its fundamental. Only social creatures that recognize other social
> creatures are potentially aspiring for the same scarce resource
> will practice politics.
>
> Fundamentally, to understand human politics we have to understand
> that humans are social creatures that perceive a shortage of resources.
>
> The recognition of resource scarcity results in competitive behaviour
> that can include cooperating with some others to better compete for
> scarce resources.
>
> There's more, but I think that is it in a nut shell.
>
> -----
>
> This is no great working definition, its just my seat of the pants sense.