So I was reading this today about the Philip Atkinson article on The Family Security Foundation, Inc site. I thought it was hilarious and well written — it reminded of Swift’s A Modest Proposal. I thought it was a parody, a commentary on Bush. But after seeing his treatise on democracy, I think the man is serious.
The funny thing is that I can understand the stance he’s arguing from — that selfish people don’t always want what’s best for a community as a whole. That sometimes what the “popular” opinion is, isn’t always the best opinion. It sort of sounds antithetical to the recent revelations on crowd theory — how the aggregated wisdom of many people results in the optimal decision, but it’s not. If you listen to the most vociferous groups in the United States today, they are a homogenous group, far too keenly aware of each other’s opinions of them. They lack diversity, independence, and are often rallying around a centralized point. They voted Bush in, they shut down valid scientific research, they fear sex education, they don’t want to allow all people equal rights…shall I go on? If that’s the popular opinion, then yes, democracy doesn’t seem to work for the good of the community as a whole.
I can’t remember who it was, but someone was recently saying that liberals don’t make enough babies — how are we going to fare when there are so many fewer of us than them? Well, we’re fewer, but like a million times smarter. It seems like that should count for something…sadly it doesn’t seem to be enough.