Monday, January 20, 2014

Electing the ridiculous

If elections are good enough for some things, let's just impose them for everything.

We can elect America's favorite color.  If red wins, then everyone's favorite color will be red, at least until the next election.  Anyone who previously had a different favorite color has to adjust their preferences.  Red things will be given priority everywhere.  Those who stubbornly cling to some other color will have to go to the back of the line- if allowed to participate at all.  And, their unapproved "favorite" might just come with other penalties, yet to be determined.

Then we can do the same for car models.  The one that wins will determine the size of parking spaces, the height of drive throughs, turning radii, and road conditions.  And of course, all will be made in America's favorite color only.

Sounds stupid, doesn't it.

In this case there's no such thing as "America", in this sense.  There are only individuals, each of whom has different ideas of "best".

It's just as stupid to elect "leaders".  This is why politicians can't be leaders.  Leaders can't be imposed.  A leader emerges spontaneously and organically, and can't be elected to shortcut his way to "leadership".  A "majority" of those who vote can't choose a leader for everyone else. Either enough people agree that the person is a leader, by following voluntarily and without forbidding opting out, or the person is just a pretender.  That's the difference between a leader and a Ruler- well, one of the differences, anyway.

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