Dilbert creator Scott Adams fantasizes on his blog about starting a new political party. His gimmick? The party platform would mirror majority opinion as measured by sophisticated polling. I’m not saying I think it’s a good idea, exactly, but it’s fun to think about a political system that doesn’t pretend nothing’s changed in 200 years.
3 thoughts on “The Pragmatic Party”
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Which system pretends nothing has changed in 200 years? The US?
The U.S. Constitution was drafted with enormous flexibility in mind; the language in parts wasn’t left open to intrepretation because the Founders were using sloppy language but becuase they wanted to leave us the ability to reinterpret as needed. Plus you can endlessly ammend the basic document by majority will.
The chartering document has seen us through a civil war, two world wars, a long cold war, styles of government from near dictatorships to quasi socialist, economic calamity and so on. Adaptable is what it does best.
I knew someone was going to call me on that. True, the system incorporates deliberate flexibility. But conventional wisdom seem obsessed with the “founding fathers,” and what they would do. IMHO, the founding fathers would tell us to quit worrying about what guys who died before electrity was mastered thought.
There is a problem here… It’s called “Tyranny of the Majority”
Who is the winner if the majority votes for something really stupid, like ID ?
One of the reasons the US government has been successful is that it is very slow to react. Decision’s made in the spur of the moment are usually wrong. Sometimes it is better to make a decision, even if wrong, than no decision at all… but these cases are rare, and unlikely to apply to the country (or the world) as a whole.
Instantaneous polling is a great thing, but it is really bad to use for important decisions, as it is too subject to mass hysteria.
cheers,
Robert.