[QUOTE=Smapti]
coupled with my own personal observations … and the reasons that authoritarian states tend to fail.
[/quote]
Forgive me for intruding on your plato like wisdom, but, what you have been arguing for sounds alot like one of those in part. You don’t avoid an authoritarian state by implementing authoritarian policies as a rule of thumb.
Although my non government enhanced brain is almost certainly wrong about such non plebian matters and I defer all the critical thinking to the most advanced members of your own species.
You seem to be confused about definitions. As I noted, our technological experts are doing noble work, for which they deserve kudos from all men of good will and character, toward systematically blocking such intrusions. However, making these misdeeds practically impossible is not synonymous with making them logically impossible; that word you used refers to the latter.
In my personal observation (without going into a full diatribe on the subject), authoritarian states fail because they try to impose radical social change too rapidly, because they exalt a cult of personality specific to an individual head of state rather than to the state/movement itself, or because they become tied up in anti-intellectual ideologies that exalt peasants or laborers over the rest of society.
The fault is not in the imposition of a policy that demands strict obedience to authority (which works quite well in most countries, including our own), but to what end that authority is employed - and it must always be employed towards the ultimate purpose of government, i.e. guaranteeing maximum possible quality of life for the largest possible number of law-abiding citizens.
In other words, authoritarian states fail because of the inherent nature of authoritarianism (government intrusion upon the private business of citizens), because of basic truisms (a cult of personality is inherently specific to individual persons, by definition), and because of the underlying motivations of authoritarian regimes (to exalt the authority class above the rest of the population).
I keep thinking that you couldn’t possibly embarrass yourself worse than you already have, and always you step up to the plate and prove me wrong.
Alternatively, if Smapti were to declare himself a Republican, we could merge two logic-fail threads into one.
“Business”, being an abstract concept, is not the holder or rights. People have rights, which includes the right to keep all their business private. For practical reasons, certain specific and limited portions of one’s business are delegated out to the hired help – the water pipes to plumbers, the patrolling of the roads to police, the collection of trash to garbagemen, etc. This does have the inconvenience of making it necessary to monitor the hired help and rebuke them if you catch them pocketing the silver or snooping into the files.
I am a lifelong Democrat and it is personally my belief that we could solve a lot of the problems that exist in America today if President Obama were to exercise his authority under the Patriot Act to declare the Republican Party a terrorist organization, and instruct law enforcement to deal with it appropriately.
From other persons. Not from the government. There is no need to hide one’s business from the government unless one is a criminal.
And, since you have yourself admitted to remorselessly violating traffic laws and stealing from creators of artistic works, your desire to hide your dealings from the government is understandable, if misguided.
False. The inherent nature of authoritarianism is to impose authority. There is no such thing as “the private business of citizens” in reference to the government.
Which is why I disclaim the idea entirely and believe that in the ideal state, the heads of government should be completely anonymous.
The underlying motive of authoritarian government is to ensure the freedom of the people. I do not subscribe to the idea that any “class” exists which should enjoy privileged status over another. You appear to be arguing against a state of affairs that I have never proposed and which I would disagree with as much as you do.
Well, yes, it is pretty amusing that the Republicans strongarmed a bill into effect which provides the legal means by which they could theoretically be removed from our system of politics once and for all.
Em, you want the government to have unlimited power to snoop into your private affairs and to outlaw and imprison your political opponents, and this is, you believe, the best way to avoid totalitarianism?
It’s true – we are aliens. But what are you going to do about it? It’s a two-party system. You have to vote for one of us.
–Kodos (The Simpsons, “Treehouse of Horror VII”. (not a documentary, Smapti notwithstanding))
OK, the question is settled. We do need blink tags for this site.
Does Google Translate have Newspeak -> English, so somebody can make sense of this?
It’s like something Der Trihs would post if he lost all his warmth and charm.