Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2001 13:42:52 -0700 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@ofug.org> Cc: jason <kib@mediaone.net>, Paul Robinson <paul@akita.co.uk>, Stephen Hurd <deuce@lordlegacy.org>, Technical Information <tech_info@threespace.com>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Helping victims of terror Message-ID: <3BAE494C.B08C2E05@mindspring.com> References: <NFBBJPHLGLNJEEECOCHAGEDNCEAA.deuce@lordlegacy.org> <3BAC3644.1CB0C626@mindspring.com> <xzp66abb7pz.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <3BAD1FAE.2F3D40F5@mindspring.com> <20010923011557.B60374@jake.akitanet.co.uk> <015e01c143c8$c93505a0$89941bd8@speakeasy.net> <3BAE400A.9BD2F357@mindspring.com> <xzphettacaj.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Dag-Erling Smorgrav wrote: > > Realize that if it comes down to the continued existance of our > > democracy, the U.S. will use all means at its disposal. > > The US is not a democracy. It is, at best, a parody of one - but > never mind that - even when (if ever) it worked as intended, it never > had much in common with a democracy save the name; the principles on > which US society and government were built are far closer to > technocracy or meritocracy than to democracy. These days, though, it > looks more like an oligarchy or some kind of decentralized enlightened > monarchy. If you want to get technical, the U.S. is a Republic, since the votes for President are made by the Electoral College, and thus the President is not directly elected. This form was necessary historically, since communications and infrastructure were unable to cope with a direct Democracy. These days communications is quick enough, but until we have universal non-repudiation and encryptions, we are still going to be technologically incapable of creating a true Democracy. If you want to get into more details, we can, starting with the bicameral nature of Congress, and the resoning behind the structure threre, and the triumverate formed by the Presidency (Executive), Congress (Legislative), and Courts (Judiciary), and the theory of the "Balance of Power". Really, it has worked remarkably well for the 225 years it has been in power. If you want to get technical, the U.K. government changed from a Monarchy to a Republic in that time, and the German government has turned over at least 4 times, if you count only gross form, and not instances. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?3BAE494C.B08C2E05>