First of all, I apologize if it sounded like I was insulting ITRchampion personally. My intent was simply to criticise his suggestions as ill-advised. It was his suggestions that seemed ill-advised (“irrational” would be hyperbolic), not Mr. Champion himself as might have been inferred from my unfortunate phrasing.
So let’s explore whether or not his offerings are, in fact, ill-advised.
This is a three-part question. It probably should be three different IMHO threads, but I seem to be discouraged to post anywhere but the Pit, so I’ll just post it all here.
Part I. What are the three top problems facing U.S.A. (or more generally the world) today?
I’d like each of us to nominate a Top Five. Mine would include:
[ul]
[li]Environmental degradation. I’m not sure AGW itself is even the biggest threat, but habitation destruction in general (including ocean acidifcation) is one of our biggest problems.[/li]
[li]Rising inequalities in wealth and income. I don’t accept the slippery slope (“If you don’t want the top 0.1% to have 99.999% of the wealth, that means they can’t have more than 0.1%. Bah!”). But severe unpurposeful inequality does have disadvantages. Dopers who disagree [checks forum] are not using their full cognitive resources.[/li]
[li]Corruption of politics so that pro-business policies are pursued rather than intelligent populist or humanitarian policies. Increasingly it’s become clear that modern media, despite its impressive technical specs, has not improved political debate. The problem is worsening in America: 4 or 5 right-wing SCOTUS’ers are corrupting politics with both hands; schoolboards are banning pro-science textbooks, etc.[/li]
One tragedy which I blame on Congress and Administrations serving rich Wall St. interests, are recent misregulations. Such greed and corruption has serious disadvantages, and exacerbates the income inequality noted above.
[li]Dysfunctional politics. Perhaps this should be considered just a corollary of the preceding, but I think its importance stands. Political support for vested interests is as old as politics. What’s changed recently is that amity and discourse are missing. The two (once big-tent) parties have become symptoms of a fracture. Islam has its Shia-Sunni schism; today’s America has its Tea Party / anti-Tea schism. (Or rather set of schisms – Life/choice, guns/no, tax/no, labor unions/no, religious/no, WASP or similar / “ethnic”, etc. – with little offered in the way of broad tents.)[/li]
[li]To complete a list of five, I’ll note that with wars in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, etc., world peace itself is in jeopardy. With the U.S. de facto “policeman” for the world, it’s especially important that U.S. leadership makes intelligent humanitarian decisions.[/li][/ul]
Part II. What changes can you suggest to U.S. government principles to effect good change?
This is the subject of an antecedent thread, but I have little or nothing to offer. Certainly events on the ground are charging the wrong way. Textbook committees are increasingly denying good science to schoolchildren. With smears, gerrymandering, etc. electoral politics has become more of a useless travesty than an intelligent debate. It might be good to “reboot” the whole system somehow. E.g., fire both Houses of Congress, arrange a national Parliamentary election set up to encourage third parties. The first Parliament would have the added responsibility of wrting a new Constitution!
One of the rights the new Parliament would have – and God help us if the irrational side of the aisle has the majority – would be to Fire givernment leaders at any level – racist sheriffs, school boards twisted by religious propaganda, bullying beat-cops.
There I’ve said it. Denounce this bold scheme if you like. I don’t set great store in it; the schisms are entrenched; it addresses none of my five top problems. Perhaps my solution is just as stupid as ITRChampion’s.
Part III. Reconcile the proposed government problems with problems identified in Part I
I hope Mr. Champion answers Part I. If he doesn’t show up, can anyone else help? What sorts of American problems is he concerned about such that he would suggest:
For the first, what’s his concern? Should hoarders be allowed to get big profits in a flood? Should the government be allowed to peg its excise tax on something to its market value? Was the JFK takedown of steel prices a great tragedy? In any case, I don’t see a big problem here.
I won’t go through all of them. Frankly these seem bizarre to me. I’d ask Mr. Champion about “No one may be forced to join a union.” I assume he means as a condition of employment. Should homeowner associations be allowed to compel maintenance charges? Membership in bar or AMA is often a condition for employment; is this also wrong?
Frankly I’m inspired by the stories of what labor unions accomplished a few generations ago, and think the weakness of unions today is a net minus for the U.S., not a plus.
On another matter:
Overcoming the Amygdala Hijack
In a thread mentioning the correlation between amygdala size and political orientation, one right-winger wrote, in effect, “Yes, but the larger amygdala gives us greater empathy.” I’d like a cite for this; the amygdala generally outputs fear or disgust. Did the Doper mean “empathy with another who’s experiencing fear or disgust”?
I’d ask all of us with over-reacting amygdala – which tends to suppress cortical decision-making, see quote – to relax and analyse society and its problems rationally.
Of whom by whom?
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