[ExI] How to make progress (was Re: Why do political and economic leaders deny Peak Oil and Climate Change?)

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sun, Sep 15, 2013 at 11:17 AM, Tomasz Rola <rtomek at ceti.pl> wrote:

> There might be a solution, even now. Just grab this puny civilisation with
> iron fist and impose changes to its ways. Unfortunately, it seems iron
> fists have ugly, ugly side effects. And they tend to be implemented by
> morons who think they understand it (and they end up washing blood from
> ugly side of the fist so it looks nicer) and by those who claim that "one
> milion/bilion bodies, not a big dealion".
>

One problem with that is: how can you make sure you are not one of said
morons?

...and then, how can you make sure while still maintaining power?  Many of
the ways to check seem to involve exposing yourself to attacks from people
who are really good at seizing power but awful at responsibly using it.

This is not an easy problem.  If it was, it would've been solved already.
It is true that many who attain power never think to ask themselves this -
but some do.  Enough of them do, combined with the naturally high
visibility of national leaders, that any simple but reliable solution would
have made itself evident already.

I've thought of a few ways to approach a solution, but first I'd like to
make sure I've stated the problem well enough that it's clearly understood.
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