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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
It is possible to get a benevolent dictator who knows exactly what they're doing, but it's incredibly unlikely. Like, the Shah ran Iran better than any of the successor governments, but he was still pretty bad. And then when you get into generational dictatorships, it gets even worse. Just look at European history. Many of the kings held up as great (Like Richard the Lionheart) were actually pretty horrible by our standards. (Was never actually in the kingdom, taxed people so much they starved to death, and killed off most of the Jewish population for their money).
And, whatever happens, we ain't getting a Vetinari out of it.
edited 18th Oct '15 8:03:05 AM by Zendervai
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I said sometimes, in my case, but while standards may be lower in China, they are improving, and at least until recently they were as well in Russia. But look at the world today, illiberal democracy thriving in much of the developed world, Europe facing the danger of falling to the far right, and of course the rise of China and Putin and their model for global relations. How can anyone say that democracy is the government of the future when faced with these facts?
No he didn't. He was completely beholden to foreign interest, allowed the counted main source of wealth to be drained by the British and Americans with no benefits going to the Iranian people, and was such an authoritarian jackass that he caused an Islamic Revolution against him that was by all accounts more free and democratic then he ever was. My current Church of Endland vicar was in Iran around the time and has himself comment on how badly Iran needed a revolution. The Shah ran Iran horribly. He was nothing but a puppet for big business in the US and UK.
X2 Because you're ignoring all evidence to the contrary. Look at some of the fastest growing countries in the world, India and Brazil, democracies. Look at how to grow China has had to open itself up to capitalism, if not democracy. Look at how much power still rests in the hands of democracies despite this apparent rise in power of authoritarianism. The US, the EU, the IMF, the World Bank, NATO. Hell look at how despite all of democracies flaws half the Arab World rose up and demanded democracic rights. It amazes me that rich westerners think they know that authoritarianism is worse, when the people who live under such regimes are rising up and demanding reform and democracy.
You're looking at things in such a short term view Jack, all you see is the failures of democracy to spread to certain areas of the world, when was the last time an established democracy was overthrow in favour of an authoritarian state? Now look at all the authoritarian states that have fallen to democracy, Tunisia, Yugoslavia, Eastern Europe, Apartheid South Africa, many African dictatorships.
You talk about the rise of flawed democracies as if they've converting to that from 'full' democracies, when instead they're coming to that from authoritarianism.
Illiberal democracies have never had it worse, they've never been under more pressure to change and reform. From Hong Kong to Ukraine, to Tunisia and South Africa, across former Yugoslavia and into the gradual reforms of South East Asia, democracy is winning and fighting for a chance in places we never dreamed it would reach. There will be people on this forum who remember the days when democracy reaching as far east as Poland was a pipe dream, but you're disappointed that it hasn't worked perfectly in Ukraine? Get some perspective.
edited 18th Oct '15 8:36:28 AM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranAnd since when is Putin even remotely benevolent?!
Which brings me to the amazing cognitive dissonance of all the conservatives falling all over themselves to fellate the "real man" Putin. Obama is an evil Commie Nazi dictator for implementing a right wing, free market plan that was first proposed by Richard FUCKING Nixon as an alternative to the congress of the time proposing single payer, was later the alternative that the Heritage Foundation proposed to Clinton's proposed reforms, and that Romney actually implemented in Mass.
Putin, meanwhile, is more or less a former secret police officer of an actual Communist regime, who has actually confiscated property and businesses from people, either on a whim or because they were enemies of his cronies, blatantly rigs elections, assassinates political enemies, closes up newspapers that dare to either be critical of him or not to sing his praises loudly enough, and he has right wingers in this country grumbling about Obama the dictator swooning.
How strong does the cognitive dissonance have to be before someone notices this shit?
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |![]()
You are right yet again Silas. It's just so hard to see. All around me the US is in retreat and Russia and China are succeeding. Hell they are even wining the hearts and minds of the world with their propaganda campaign. On Quora their are numerous people calling Assad a hero. Not the best of a series of bad alternatives, not "our son of a bitch", but a genuine hero. That just makes me hate the world
It's more of admiring your enemy and wishing your own country could be like them. I suppose it's the equivalent of a mother nagging her child to be more like an academic rival in school. They are routing for their child to be the best, but they know that the other child is better at certain things. Mind you that's just from the corner of the right that I have seen, but I know their are many who hold up Putin as some kind of hero, Le Pen called him a defender of Christianity, presumably against the gay mafia or some nonsense like that.
edited 18th Oct '15 8:40:50 AM by JackOLantern1337
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.A lot of liberals widely support Obama's exercise of executive power "in defiance of Congress," but we cried foul when Bush did the same thing.
That's both the benefit and the problem of a dictator - sometimes his dictates will go against what you want. Thus, I won't be happy with politics until I have an unstoppable robot army under my control - but most of the rest of you would be appalled by the very thought of me having so much power.
Also, in point of fact, dictatorship itself tends to lead the dictator to make poorer decisions than he would if he had to deal with honest advisors. They tend to get reality-proof really fast in their one-person echo chambers.
Jack the problem is you're got your terms the wrong way round. The US isn't in retreate, you're mistaking a faltering (but not failed) offensive for a retreate. Russia and China aren't driving us back, they're just managing to stop us driving them back. Look at Ukraine, Syria and Hong Kong, all places where you'd probably say that the US is in retreate, but it's not, it and the ideas of democracy even being suggested in those places is a massive offensive move on our part.
We've barged into the other guys house and taken over his front room, but you seem to think the fact that he's got control over the sofa means we're retreating.
Also you need to get off the internet Jack, the opinions of a few Internet idiots and a few fools at your school are in no way indicative of what people actually think.
edited 18th Oct '15 9:27:06 AM by Silasw
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Right, sorry for the derail. Now to get back on topic The Un Mousquing of American Islam
. Islam is suffering the exact same problems as the other major religions in the US.
The country we should emulate is not Denmark, but Canada
edited 18th Oct '15 9:55:52 AM by JackOLantern1337
I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.Another thing worth noting is that even if you get a Bona Fide (TM) Benevolent Dictator, there is no guarantee that his successors will be either competent or benelovent. Take Malaysia and Mahathir Mohamed (if the fellow can even be considered benelovent), the man's successors were picked by him, and one was ousted by him when he didn't do as Mahathir said. The current one has managed to be utterly incompetent as well.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiotClearly the solution is a benevolent global AI system. I'm sure nothing could ever go wrong with that.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ottawa-sends-body-bags-to-manitoba-reserves-1.844427
He sent body bags, face masks and hand sanitizer, because it's not like, y'know, they needed vaccines or anything.
Wealth therapy tackles woes of the rich: 'It’s really isolating to have lots of money'
Which "charity", you mean. There are an awful lot of them that are little more than legal tax dodges; they contribute some nominal amount of money to "cancer" or something, while paying hefty salaries to all of the philanthropist's friends.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"![]()
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But can you ditch the mindset that either came with the wealth you inherited or allowed you to build that wealth in the first place?
It would be interesting to know if the negative correlation between wealth and happiness is the same for the purely-inherited scions of wealth and for executives, lawyers and Wall Street traders - I know that the lifestyle of the latter types is always high-intensity, but does that hold true for the "silver spoon" crowd, and if not, what problems do they suffer? Is it just isolation and social disapproval?
Incidentally, this
is an enlightening insight into the minds of rich assholes (source: WSJ by way of Cracked).
edited 18th Oct '15 7:33:31 PM by Ramidel

Hey Jack, have a look at the average standard of living and level of individual freedom in Russia and China and get back to me on how competent the Russian and Chinease governments are.
The idea that authoritarianism is somehow competent is a myth, the trains were always late in Nazi Germany.
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran