From: Randall Randall (randall@randallsquared.com)
Date: Thu Aug 01 2002 - 17:59:08 MDT
Lee Corbin wrote:
> Randall writes
>>However, it also appears that democratic societies tend to
>>slide into being less free, and eventually non-demcratic.
>
> Is that really the case? Besides Weimar Germany, have any other
> examples? Probably some Latin American countries that flip-flopped
> a while, but are now finally democratic (only, of course, weakly
> so compared to Western countries and Japan).
The example I know best is the US itself. The rapid advance of
technology has allowed some to stay a bit ahead of the curve,
while enabling a steady encroachment upon the average person's
freedom and wealth. The government has soaked up virtually all
of the economic gains of technological advancement over the last
70 years, and brought advancement in some of the more promising
fields (nuclear power, for instance) to a virtual standstill.
Fortunately, we are riding the effects of an almost free market
in a small portion of the globe to a possible singularity, at
which point it will no longer matter, if all goes well.
-- Randall Randall <randall@randallsquared.com> "Congress keeps telling me I ain't causin' nuthin' but problems and now they're sayin' I'm in trouble with the government; I'm lovin' it" -- Eminem
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:15:51 MST