Re: A Modest Proposal

On Tue, 5 Jun 2012 03:48:47, tmcd@xxxxxxxxx (Tim McDaniel) wrote:

David Loewe, Jr. <dloewe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, 04 Jun 2012 17:29:00, David Dyer-Bennet <dd-b@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
"David V. Loewe, Jr" <daveloewe@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
On Mon, 4 Jun 2012 06:47:35, tmcd@xxxxxxxxx (Tim McDaniel) wrote:
David Loewe, Jr. <dloewe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Politics is, more or less, a *requirement* of a Democracy. Not
so much for an Autocracy or Absolute Monarchy.

Politics always occurs in an autocracy and absolute monarchy.
It's competing for the favor of the autocrat, or politicking
for/against other people who have power (derived from the
autocrat). And even in most traditional autocracies or absolute
monarchies, people have power apart from the sovereign: they have
land, or businesses, or other wealth.

But it is not a *requirement*.

Is it avoidable?

Doesn't matter.

I think it does matter for this reason:

In one case, you state that politics is a requirement. In the other
case, I assert that politics automatically and immediately happens.

You assume something not in evidence. ;-) This *is* rasff after all.
Can't we postulate something radically *different*?

Do you think you could play political games to gain the favor of
Colossus?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus:_The_Forbin_Project

I'd call the world depicted in the movie and books an autocracy.

I think "has politics" is not a useful basis for classification: it
happens whenever two or more people are gathered, and there's no point
in having a yes/no classification if the observed value is always
"yes". It's like arguing that H3O+ and OH- are not part of the
_definition_ of water: they always happen (if more than one molecule)
and they are crucial to the observed properties of water, so they
might as well be part of the definition.

The *type* of politics, amount, evolution, et cetera, do distinguish
them, and are of sometimes lethal importance. But not its presence.
--
"I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail
fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
- John Paul Jones
.

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