[ExI] "Toward a Type 1 civilization" by Michael Shermer

[Stefano Vaj]

On Sun, Aug 10, 2008 at 5:34 AM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> Stefano writes
>> Mmhhh, say, as in the United State where self-selected and nominated
>> Justice Priests sitting in the Supreme Court have a final say on the local
>> and federal legislation based on obscure and unplausible interpreting of
>> a sacred document enshrined in the XVIII century?
>
> They're hardly self-selected, unless the "ruling class" here is infinitely
> more devious than I suspect. Or than almost anyone suspects.

Well, self-selected at least in the sense that they are inevitably
educated and trained and filtered through law schools and the court
system by previous exponents of, and affiliates to, the US legal
tradition, and then cherry-picked/nominated, as opposed to elected,
and for life. Please understand that as a jurist myself I do no
underestimate the deep differences that may exist among such "clergy",
the contaminations of ideas from the outside world, or its  potential
for endogenous evolution.

But this is also true for the Pope and the catholic cardinals, and it
is sometimes funny to remark how a Swiftian metaphore may be
applicable in a not-too-forced way to what we may consider perfectly
secular, transparent and "democratic" institutions. :-)

Stefano Vaj