[ExI] Aristos/was Re: are all cultures equivalent?

[Dan]

--- On Tue, 4/14/09, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Apr
> 13, 2009 at 9:51 PM, Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>
> wrote:
> 
> At 09:41 PM 4/13/2009 +0200, you wrote:
> 
> Isn't aristocracy and wealth an oxymoron? :-)
> 
> 
> 
> --
> 
> Stefano Vaj
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I thought it was a pleonasm. Maybe not in
> Italy.
> 
> 
> My joke concerned the fact that a primary concern for the
> accumulation of personal wealth does not really qualify you
> for a "government of the best"... :-)

I thought you were playing off something that too.  Rule by the wealthy is plutocracy -- if one wants to be precise.  Of course, with aristocrats and putative aristocracies, IIRC, it wasn't so much the best by some objective standard, but merely traditional elites (or people awed by such*) self-proclaiming their rule best.

Regards,

Dan

*  Some paleocons argue for aristocracy and monarchy because of the chance element in breeding -- I reckon giving their supposed divinity the last word in who rules.  Kind of strange because actual aristocracies based on lineage seem to put a premium on making sure breeding is anything but chance, no?