2005 A2K Elections

Oh goodie, sign me up. I love it when my deck is waxed, polished, and smells lemony fresh.

boomerang, quoting a newspaper article, wrote:

It's not surprising that conservatives are making wrong choices. Whether or not power always corrupts, no one can deny it tempts. Like Tolkien's One Ring, power whispers to dark places in the soul, urging us to calm our own deep fears by using force, or the threat of force, on others. Authoritarianism arises in those seductive whispers.

To a large degree, I suspect that the "seductive whispers" of authoritarianism are a side effect of the democratic system itself. In a democracy, unlike in a monarchy, you never become a political leader unless you want to. Consequently, the process selects for people who believe in some cause, in the name of which they can boss around everybody else. It doesn't make a difference if that cause is their view of social solidarity or their vision of religious righteousness. The difference is that those who truly believe in leaving people alone, by definition, don't have a strong enough motive for political activism, so never run anything worth running in government. It appears to me that a major political party who believes in small government cannot be stable in the long run, at least not in a democracy.

I guess that's why so many people of my political persuasion were monarchists in the 19th century. In a monarchy, people become rulers because they have to, not because they want to. Arguably this tends to lead to less bossy rulers. I used to think this argument absurd when I first ran into it. I'm still far from persuaded, but it looks a lot less absurd on reflection. Come to think of it: I even believe Douglas Adams has a variation of this theme somewhere in his Hitchhiker's Guide. If I remember correctly, his ruler of the world is a total eccentric who never would do anything as normal as using his power to advance a cause. One protagonist argues this is exactly what makes him a good choice for ruler of the world. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a visionary book indeed, and George W. Bush is the best world leader to illustrate the point.