Re: Defunct Democracy

Michael Lorrey (retroman@tpk.net)
Tue, 05 Nov 1996 16:54:09 -0500

Stephen de Vries wrote:
>
> Democracy is generally seen as the ideal political system by most of
> the western world, but does it make evolutionary sense ?
>
> Democracy says that all parts of this complex organism
> called society have a say in how it grows. That is to say that a
> plumber, a mathematician, a poet and a politician all have the same
> ability in judging what is best for the whole of society.
> Specialization of this skill makes a whole lot more sense to me.
> As an analogy one can see in the human organism, that it is our brains
> which "decide" where we are heading in our evolutionary jungle,
> although it depends on the correct functioning of the other organs,
> they do not participate in the decision process.
>
> The ideal situation for maximum growth would be to have people who
> know what the best evolutionary paths are, in power. Democracy's
> answer to the question of "how do we decide who knows best ?" is
> simply to say that it'll take the average of all human decisions
> (including the bad ones).
> To me, it makes more sense to have a dictator in power. The method
> of his ascension will not be voting, but rather becoming a leader
> because of his success in the free market.
>
> Leaders will autoevolve in a free market system, without the
> artificial intervention of democracy.
>

Unfortunately, this assumes that ANYONE should be "in power" Look at
the biggest organisms on the planet- coral reefs, Mangroves, underground
molds, and hyperthermophilic communities in the earth's crust. The HTP
biomass is estimated to exceed 90% of all the living mass on the planet.
None of these has anything like a central authority, yet they are the
most successful organisms.

Here's an analogy, using an idea of a possible alien judgement on the
superior species on the planet:

The most superior species on the planet must be the cereal grains. They
occupy all the best real estate, are tended to by an autonomous species
which propagates the cereal's seed, and have a whole host of species
which serve one or more of their needs. They absorb the vast majority of
the solar flux, as well as material natural resources.

BTW, they also do not have a central authority.

Mike