I mean, that’s kind of the point of why we don’t do autocracy, though. It’s not inherently bad, and nations have had great autocratic leaders who have (within the social mores of their time) done great things, had times of peace and prosperity, and had grand visions. The issue is when their inbred 25 IQ heir, or some power-mad pretender who just wants to rule for ruling’s sake, or a paranoid prince who kills everything because they believe they’re trying to assassinate him, takes over.
We like to promote democracy as an inherent good, but as a political system its strengths are more that it mitigates and somewhat prevents the sheer damage autocracy can do, more than saying that any nation with a king or queen with great ideas and compassion is inherently unjust and wrong. Its trade off is gridlock, the whims of the populace undermining or implementing programs because of short term fears or fads, and other similar problems, but by and large things don’t just change on whim.
In an ideal world I have no problem with an autocracy led by someone who does all the “right” things, the problem is that that stability is by no means guaranteed. I don’t mind having a king just because he’s a king. Hell, there’s no guarantee that same person doesn’t eventually get an assassination attempt or something else that causes them to go off the rails become a danger to the people he lords over. I don’t mind being ruled over by a king or queen, and if I got a wish that ensured we’d have a great king or queen that was compassionate, smart, listened to the people and his advisors etc for all eternity, great! But that’s generally not what happens, you’re rolling the dice every new leader, and even an elective monarchy is susceptible to one bad egg spoiling the whole system.
I don’t value democracy because it allows ideas I don’t like to get passed sometimes, I don’t even value it because it allows dissent and discussion (good Kings have advisors and assemblies to argue about issues), it’s because it prevents the country from going off the rails just because a single person got blackmailed or killed, or even had a bad idea.
**pullin **didn’t say that *all *believers were in this category, just “a significant number” of them. I agree with this sentiment, but I also believe that there are people who are sincerely religious. I conclude this on the basis of how these people live their lives. If they display their religious beliefs prominently and break every tenet of their religion, then I think they’re hypocrites.
I believe the number of people who consider themselves excellent drivers is far greater than the number of excellent drivers. After being in the first group for a few (too many) years, I’m no longer in either group.
I think anyone with more than one child who claims not to have a favorite is lying. I can believe that a parent loves all his or her children, takes care of all of them equally well, and would suffer greatly at the loss of any one, but there’s still one whose company he or she prefers, or more strongly identifies with.
I think also that a lot of people still secretly think the parents of a disabled child, especially a developmentally disabled one, did something wrong. They were too old, or too young, didn’t breastfeed, breastfed exclusively too long, didn’t take every possible precaution to avoid illnesses and foods that could adversely affect the fetus. Somehow, the parents must be at fault. Believing this lets people with non-disabled children feel like they did everything right, and not that they just got lucky.
I post on a board for health care professionals and have seen threads from people who believed that any woman who lived in certain neighborhoods in big cities, or had certain last names in small towns, who came into the hospital to give birth should be sterilized prior to discharge, and the baby too; that way, you get the boys. :eek: I’ve also heard the same thing about students who go to some “alternative” high schools.
You say “secret”, but I suspect you really mean “subconscious”. Very few people favor any of the things you mentioned, but on a subconscious level I suspect a lot of people would reconcile themselves to such outcomes pretty easily if they were in their favor.
Yes to both. Humans see patterns, and we react to the patterns we perceive. I don’t think there’s much classic racism anymore, but we are human and we notice that certain people seem to behave certain ways and we react to it based on our assumptions and what we like and dislike. Which can create racist outcomes. I don’t think many hiring managers hate black people, but studies have shown that applications with black-sounding names receive fewer callbacks. My own workplace has great diversity. But I also noticed that all our black employees have names like Betsy, Rosanne, Junie, Lydell, Lionel, Jacques, etc. No Quarneshas, no D’Morris.
I am having compassion-fatigue feelings about the Orlando shooting. This is 99.9% caused by “power grieving” on CNN and practically every other news outlet – I certainly feel sorrow for the victims and families, but I am just done with folks who seize their 15-minutes of fame (and the media encouraging it):
“Hi Anderson, I went dancing at Pulse two years ago on Latino night – I ordered a drink from one of the bartenders who was killed!”
“Today at 10 Eastern Time on Dateline: the guy whose mother’s cousin’s co-worker made the rounded Phillips-head self-drilling screws for two of the Orlando victims’ caskets.”
Sanctimonious senator hailing from Frackingvilleton, North Dakota, who voted against every same-sex bill that ever came to the Senate: “Our hearts and prayers are with our LGBTQ brothers and sisters as we all mourn this national tragedy.” (A case of the only good gay is a dead gay, I guess. I sure as Hell ain’t your sister.).
Patrice O’Neal once said, “I can only give a f*!? about what I give a f*!>& about”. Yeah, sometimes I just don’t really care. But sometimes things on the news affect me more than I’d expect. September 11 affected me deeply, as did this Orlando shooting. But most of the bad things the media reports don’t really reach me on a deep emotional level. I guess when you’re 40 and every day brings an atrocity or a natural disaster, you have to pick what ou’re going to really care about.
I think that too many people just don’t think that it matters. What you say matters. What you do matters. Plan for your future. Plan for the future of your town, your society, your planet. Politicians - and society in general - want instant gratification. The money isn’t real if it’s not in my hand right now. The stadium won’t exist unless we start building it immediately - funding be damned. Who cares if I engage in risky behaviour? (socially, financially)
Don’t plant a seedling today - buy a whole tree in 20 years. I wonder which would be cheaper? Easier?
Too many people just don’t think that it matters. I think this is a result of two things -
Blind self-interest. Fear sells. Just look at the state of politics, especially, but not exclusively, on the right-wing. Is it easier to embrace refugees, in the hopes that in a generation or two, your societies will be closer, more interdependent, more peaceful, making the world a safer place… or to use the refugees as scapegoats and win yourself a few political points in the next few weeks?
Youth. If you haven’t followed a decision from inception to consequence, it’s easy to be blind to the process. “I wouldn’t lick that light socket if I were you… It may not turn out as well as you’re hoping.”
Back to the OP:
I suspect that in November, we will discover that many, many more people than we thought hold a secret which they never said in public: that they support Donald Trump.
This is a tricky one, since people don’t really behave rationally about many things. Most people care more about specific animals than the mass of humanity, but at the same time don’t care at all about most animals.
Most people eat meat. Very very few eat humans. By this logic, they don’t seem to care much about animals. Eating a vegetarian diet is not particularly difficult, but most people don’t even bother. Obviously, they can’t care that much about animals.
On the other hand, many people have pets. They could instead take the money they spend on their pets’ food and toys and healthcare and instead donate it to a charity that feeds African orphans or cures malaria. But they don’t. Obviously, they care more about those specific animals than most humans.
But the polls currently being published are, presumably, anonymous polling. In public, people may decline to identify as a Trump supporter, but over anonymous polling, they might be honest. So I don’t think Trump’s numbers are or will be much higher than what the polls say they will be.
I believe there are some people who take an almost vicious pleasure in deliberately calling what is right, wrong, and promoting what is wrong, as right. I wonder if there’s a psychological term for this.
I think such people have always existed, but the Internet has given them more of a medium to voice such antics.
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Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…
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