[ExI] [Soc]Complex Adaptive Systems - Tending Always to 50/50 split)

[Stefano Vaj]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 4:41 AM, John Grigg <possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com> wrote:
> A glib answer (hey, I'm often quite guilty of that myself!) that is totally
> inaccurate.

Yes, this was a little too glib from my side. I apologise.

> What you cut out was my comment about the United States and
> other democracies having an internal moral compass that is generally
> self-correcting over time.  This comes in the form of a constitution (that
> is respected), three branches of government to divide up the power and
> reduce the chance of tyranny, an empowered judicial system, multiple
> political parties (rather than a totally stacked deck), a citizenry who have
> not been cowed by the leadership and secret police, relatively honest
> politicians and judges, government enforcement organizations empowered (at
> least sometimes) to successfully prosecute those in power who break the law
> and exploit their status, journalists who have not been deeply intimidated
> and muzzled by the state, a military that respects civilian rule, and
> basically clean elections.

I am not going to object to all that, but what you are really doing
here is simply to reiterate the rationale and justifications of some
feature of the US legal and social system, or rather of how it should
ideally work. Different, but analogous in purpose, arguments are hower
brought in defence of the status quo in other parts of the world.
Moreover, it is debatable that the degree of popular consensus for the
government in place is actually higher in the US than in some of
countries that you consider as "tyrannical". Sure, it might be argued
that public opinions are brain-washed there, but then one should show
that educational institutions, the media and the  cultural industry,
not to mention the governmental propaganda itself, would have no
influence whatsoever on the ethical and political views of US citizens
or on their perception of the "American way of life".

Please understand me well. I am not blaming in the least the US
government or other power-that-be for thinking that they may be
"right" on this or that, or to do what they can to advance their views
in the world. Only, I find it funny that they regularly pretend to be
surprised by the fact that other people may do just the same.

Stefano Vaj