05 JAN 2023 by ideonexus
Recipe for Modernism
Here is the recipe:
Look at a complex and confusing reality, such as the social dynamics of an old city
Fail to understand all the subtleties of how the complex reality works
Attribute that failure to the irrationality of what you are looking at, rather than your own limitations
Come up with an idealized blank-slate vision of what that reality ought to look like
Argue that the relative simplicity and platonic orderliness of the vision represents rationality
Use authoritarian power to imp... 1 
notes
notes02 SEP 2016 by ideonexus
Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Rationalia
In Rationalia, the Constitution stipulates that a body of convincing evidence needs to exist in support of an idea before any Policy can established based on it. In such a country, data gathering, careful observations, and experimentation would be happening all the time, influencing practically every aspect of our modern lives. As a result, Rationalia would lead the world in discovery, because discovery would be built into the DNA of how the government operates, and how its citizens think....
1 30 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
States Reduce Violence
So did Hobbes get it right? In part, he did. In the nature of man we find three principal causes of quarrel: gain (predatory raids), safety (preemptive raids), and reputation (retaliatory raids). And the numbers confirm that relatively speaking, “during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war,” and that in such condition they live in “continual fear, and danger of violent death.”
But from his armchair in 17th-ce... 1 notes
notes24 JAN 2015 by ideonexus
Success of America is Due to Hamilton's Jaundiced View of...
The practical success and durability of the Constitution owe much to Hamilton's jaundiced view of human nature. The American Constitution is designed to be operated by crooks, just as the British constitution is designed to be operated by gentlemen. Because Hamilton believed that men are by nature crooks rather than gentlemen, he was able to help design a constitution that could deal effectively with President Nixon. If ever a World Government should come into existence, it had better be a go...Folksonomies: politics governance
Folksonomies: politics governance
1 notes
notes21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Counterpoint to "US Oligarchy" Finding
As usual. It implies that the views of 'average Americans' are abrogated by the economic elite. As the PDF clearly states on page 14 "It turns out, in fact, that the preferences of average citizens are positively and fairly highly correlated, across issues, with the preferences of the economic elites." It also turns out that the paper defines 'average American' as someone at the 50% income level, and 'economic elite' as someone at the 90% income level or above, which works out to $146,000. Th...Folksonomies: politics governance
Folksonomies: politics governance
Does the research actually find that people who organize and attempt to influence government actually do?
21 APR 2014 by ideonexus
Is the United States is an Oligarchy?
Each of our four theoretical traditions (Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic
Elite Domination, Majoritarian Interest Group Pluralism, and Biased Pluralism) emphasizes
different sets of actors as critical in determining U.S. policy outcomes, and each tradition has
engendered a large empirical literature that seems to show a particular set of actors to be highly
influential. Yet nearly all the empirical evidence has been essentially bivariate. Until very
recently it has not been pos...Folksonomies: politics governance
Folksonomies: politics governance
Plays on our suspicion of authority meme, but is it just an emergent phenomenon?
02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
The Power of the Masses
The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.
"On Coalition Government" (April 24, 1945), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 257.*
The masses are the real heroes, while we ourselves are often childish and ignorant, and without this understanding it is impossible to acquire even the most rudimentary knowledge.
"Preface and Postscript to Rural Surveys" (March and April 1941), Selected Works, Vol. III, p. 12.*
The masses have boundless creative power. T... 1 notes
notesMao on the power and heroism of the collective.
02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Democracy in Socialism
The people's democratic dictatorship uses two methods. Towards the enemy, it uses the method of dictatorship, that is, for as long a period of time as is necessary it does not let them take part in political activities and compels them to obey the law of the People's Government and to engage in labour and, through labour, transform themselves into new men. Towards the people, on the contrary, it uses the method not of compulsion but of democracy, that is, it must necessarily let them take par... 1 notes
notesAn important point to remember that one is a form of governance and the other is an economic model; therefore, the two are not in opposition.
02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Policy Must be Tested
Policy is the starting-point of all the practical actions of a revolutionary party and manifests itself in the process and the end-result of that party's actions. A revolutionary party is carrying out a policy whenever it takes any action. If it is not carrying out a correct policy, it is carrying out a wrong policy; if it is not carrying out a given policy consciously, it is doing so blindly. What we call experience is the process and the end-result of carrying out a policy. Only through the...Folksonomies: governance public policy
Folksonomies: governance public policy
1 notes
notesOnly when a policy is carried out by the people, who understand it, is it tested and found to be correct or wrongheaded.
08 NOV 2013 by ideonexus
The Technocracy
The basis of modern industry being scientific knowledge of nature's laws whereby nature's resources are made available for human use and enjoyment through the aid and agency of technical skill, "Reconstruction" becomes essentially a process of selective rejection of present inappropriate economic usages; discarding customs which unduly facilitate the acquisitive instincts, and substituting others which tend to minimize social obstacles to the freer expression of the constructive or industrial... 1 notes
notesFirst definition.
