[ExI] Effectiveness of democracy as a result of selection bias

[Dan]

--- On Tue, 6/30/09, Henrique Moraes Machado <cetico.iconoclasta at gmail.com> wrote:
> Rafal> ### From my point of view,
>> democracy is a crappy tool, to be used only
>> until enough people grow up and are capable of making
>> a better society.
> 
> The very concept of state comes IMHO from the necessity to
> cope with scarcity of resources. To get rid of democracy,
> and every other form of government, it's necessary first to
> reach a post-scarcity society type. This all in theory,
> because I really don't know if us apes can exist without
> some kind of politics. And there's also the possibility that
> once we attain this post-scarcity society (if...) we won't
> have anything to do other than politics... 

I disagree.  I don't think there will ever be such a thing as a post-scarcity society.  As long as there are unmet wants, there will be scarcity.  And I also disagree that statism -- whether in its democratic form or something else -- is necessary or inevitable either.  I think de-legitimizing the state can happen and this can happen in variety of ways -- not necessarily in a purely ideological change where everyone wakes up and sees that statism really is worse than the alternatives.

Regards,

Dan