From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Fri Aug 02 2002 - 00:07:54 MDT
Randall writes
> >>However, it also appears that democratic societies tend to
> >>slide into being less free, and eventually non-democratic.
> >
> > 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.
This soaking up of the wealth is indeed one of the greatest dangers
to the future of all of us that there is IMO. But sadly, "the people"
are getting what they want. All a politician has to do is refer to
the benefits some select category can get at the public trough, and
he's got himself a lot of votes. But I don't see that as undemocratic;
the people can do any number of stupid things without ending the
democratic process itself. So far as I can see, the elections are
still honest (and getting better), and the true power (too much of it,
by far, sadly) still in the hands of those elected.
You've named this "the decline of freedom". I agree, mostly. Yes,
depending where you lived 150 years ago, one might not have as much
freedom as one might think (especially if black, say). The local
mayor or sheriff by be more inclined and more able to take matters
into his own hands.
Yet on the whole, there are just a huge number of things (in America
at least) that one was free to do 150 years ago that cannot be done
today, things that the government really has no business regulating.
> 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.
Exactly how I look at it, though only time will tell just how
"fortunate" a singularity will turn out to be.
Lee
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