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is democracy actually good? what would some alternatives be? (hexbear.net)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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i think it would be neat to be ruled over by a council of benevolent scientists, or perhaps a philosopher king. democracy just seems like a bad idea and it hasn't been working very well. if it's a popularity contest then we just get charismatic populists and demagogues.

the only way i think democracy would work is if we give animals the right to vote. I think with some technology we could figure out how to teach dogs and horses and dolphins to vote, that would be a good start. then maybe have like a council of tree experts and plant enthusiasts to represent the interests of plants in all votes.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 8 months ago (3 children)

i think it would be neat to be ruled over by a council of benevolent scientists, or perhaps a philosopher king

I'm sorry but there is no secret geniuses just waiting in the wings to save us. We're all fucking morons and concentrating more power in the hands of fewer morons won't go well.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Perhaps there could be some mechanism whereby the benevolent scientists or philosopher kings are chosen by taking into account the general opinion of the people they are accountable to

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago

In keeping with the benevolent scientist theme, we could have an academic institution tasked with translating constituent opinions into selections of philosopher kings. Maybe it could be called something like "Election College"

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

A supreme council?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

I think the world should be ruled over by The Free Software Foundation. They force all corporations to become open source non profits and abolish copyright. Then establish a governance council of 12 made of members of Greenpeace, Food Not Bombs, and Doctors Without Borders.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I'd vote for that

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

We also tried that before in USA, its called a technocracy. It didn't work because at the time (early 20th century) most of the scientists were eugenecists.

Might be time to try again now that eugenics is (mostly) laughed out of the room.