[ExI] communism/authoritarianism

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Fri, Sep 18, 2020 at 7:02 PM Anton Sherwood <bronto at pobox.com> wrote:
> On 2020-9-18 11:13, Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat wrote:
> > I read Popper on this in_The Open Society and Its Enemies_. It was,
> > IIRC, in his critique of Plato's politics. My guess is Popper got that
> > from earlier [classical] liberals too. I've often tried to use the
> > same idea on today's partisans -- telling Democrats and Republicans if
> > you give the president ever more power, imagine what'll happen when
> > the other party (the guys who believe are out to destroy all that's
> > decent and fine) is in power. But they are partisans.
>
> It may be intentional.  (On my least cynical days I'll say the intention
> is subconscious.)  "We've created this Huge Government Program which
> will solve all problems and never do anything bad, so long as you NEVER
> AGAIN do something STUPID like vote for the Other Party."
>
> When I take off my anarchist hat and put on my constitutional hat, I
> have a bunch of structural reform proposals that the Biparty will never
> adopt because they lower some stakes.
>
> --
> *\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org

Um, I lean toward it being somewhat of a prisoner's dilemma and maybe
Darwinian. Any faction that willingly restricts their power is making
themselves more vulnerable, ergo they don't typically restrict power
once they're in office.

This goes along with my view that power is rarely if ever given up
willingly by the ruling class. At best, they might cede some power as
a concession, but at worst they'll fight tooth and claw.

Of course, aside from pure partisanship or shortsightedness ('in the
long run we're all dead') and design, what about revenge and desire to
hurt one's enemies? Many alt-right types seem motivated by the last
two. I even went to an anarchist meeting loaded with alt-right types
who wanted me to troll DSA and SJW groups because, well, it was fun
for them. I'm not saying there aren't folks like that across the
political spectrum/landscape -- just pointing to my personal
experience. One can see this as a short range thing too: they don't
think/care about what happens later as long as they get their jabs in.

Regards,

Dan