america's political system is best defined as a (barely) representative
oligarchy, a plutocracy or my favourite: a kleptocracy.
>From: Ascmjk@aol.com
>Reply-To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>To: moq_discuss@moq.org
>Subject: Re: MD What can we know
>Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 14:49:19 EDT
>
>In a message dated 4/29/2002 9:54:28 AM Central Daylight Time,
>gavgc@hotmail.com writes:
> > platt,
> > in a (real) democracy you *are* the government, which is another way of
> > saying that you - in connection with your community, town, city etc -
>get
> > to
> > shape your own life to a much greater extent than if your power/freedom
>is
> > reduced to a choice between pepsi or coke, either at the supermarket or
>the
> >
> > polling booth.
> > cheers
> > gav
> >
>I'd never presume to speak for Platt, but I'd venture to guess he'd say
>that
>(America, anyway) isn't a "true" democracy. If you had to define it in
>legalistic terms (and this last election proved how integral the legal
>system
>is to our elections), you'd probably call America a constitutional
>republic.
>"To the Republic for which it stands..." etc.
>
>Indeed, our founding fathers and the first few generations of leaders in
>the
>American government had a general aversion to the actual word "democracy"
>equating it with "mob rule" which they abhorred just as much as
>totalitarianism. I don't think the virtues we today commonly associate with
>the word came into vogue until Woodrow Wilson, which aligns nicely in
>Pirsig's timeframe of the Intellectual Level taking over.
>
>Jon
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