Comment on Don't Worry About Retirement, Millennials

OnyxRex@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

• My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  In totalitarian regimes—communism, fascism, religious fundamentalism—popular support is a given. You can start wars, you can prolong them, you can put anyone in uniform for any length of time without ever having to worry about the slightest political backlash. In a democracy, the polar opposite is true. Public support must be husbanded as a finite national resource. It must be spent wisely, sparingly, and with the greatest return on your investment. America is especially sensitive to war weariness, and nothing brings on a backlash like the perception of defeat. I say “perception” because America is a very all-or-nothing society. We like the big win, the touchdown, the knockout in the first round. We like to know, and for everyone else to know, that our victory wasn’t only uncontested, it was positively devastating. -Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

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  • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    communism, fascism, religious fundamentalism

    democracy

    Point of order, democracy is a mechanism for selecting leadership, not an ideology of governance.

    Democracies routinely produce Communist, Fascist, and Religious Fundamentalist leaders.

    Like, I know it’s a quote and all. But it’s just a Baby’s First PolySci view of how civilizations organize themselves. Not an ounce of Lockean Theory to be found.

    That’s before you get into the reality of Republican governance and practical enfranchisement. You can’t go rolling up on Thomas Jefferson’s slaves and announcing “Idiots, it’s a democracy, why did you vote for this?”

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    • My_IFAKs___gone@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Thanks. I’ll convey this to Mr. Brooks for his consideration.

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    • j_overgrens@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      democracy is a mechanism for selecting leadership

      No, it’s not. Or well, it’s more than that. Especially ideally. Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus approbari debet – “what concerns everyone must be approved by everyone”.

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      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        what concerns everyone must be approved by everyone

        Democracies don’t function this way. Majoritarian rule regionally occurs in defiance of some portion of the public citizenry.

        Depending on how the Democracy is organized bureaucratically, it may even be the majority of the citizenry.

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• architect@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I’ll hide ya.

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• Malica@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I’d call you sane

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