why no political system works

Originally posted by monkofmimir
Why no political system works

Beyond mythological kings such as Arthur Pendragon and Vikramāditya humans have never experienced a properly functioning government.

I completely agree. Further to your above statement, even those laudable attempts had flaws.

Every government only remains in power with the blessing of its people, they give it its authority and its legitimacy in exchange it gives them protection from foreign governments, criminal activity and quite often a variety of other concerns such as fires or illness.

It is not true to say that a government only retains its position when allowed to do so by the people it claims to act on the behalf of. The fact of the matter is that right now we have some glaring examples of political systems, tyrannies, and individual leaders and parties, loosing all possible connection with their electorate, despite the fact that they will be voted in again and again.

Some achieve this through the threat of violence, through the fear of the electorate of what might replace them. And still others achieve their primacy, by destroying the ability of their people to think past the politics en masse, and vote for real change, real democracy, and an accountable government.

Assad of Syria, for instance, uses his police and military assets, to hammer his will upon his people, like an ignorant child in a tantrum. A tantrum that can level city blocks, and kill at a whim thousands of people if it peaks.

David Cameron here in Britain, and every PM for decades now, has set about the corruption of government, and the brainwashing of the people, into believing that the deplorable level of unaccountability that government enjoys is required, in order that it function at all. Also, that the people may only have a say when the elections come up. Fact is, that the British people would be much better off if they had the executive power enjoyed by the PM, and had the right to use politicians the way they ought to be, to enforce the will of the majority, so that the nation remains the domain of those who live in it, rather than those who make money from its toils.

Governments also allow a slow change of society either towards a specific goal (such as the abolishment of the state in communism) or to keep the laws of the land relevant to the society that inhabits it.

Unfortunately governments unfailingly fail to live up to their function due to their inherent corruption, until people from all areas of the political spectrum realize this is a bigger threat than rival political ideologies we will never overcome this inherent weakness in government and we will be stuck with it.

The reality is that it is not the politicians who need to realise this threat, but the people. If people rise up, as one, and demand freedom, demand the rights to which they ARE entitled, and crush any who would deny them those rights, are prepared to fight for them, then the problem would cease to exist.

Its like arguing what colour carpet you want in the living room while the house is on fire.
No matter how the house of cards is stacked you always seem to find the same jokers at the top, rich decadent parasites who contribute nothing but take everything.

well those are my $0.02 at least

I could not agree more with this last statement, but there is a deeper sickness at work here. Even in democratic and developed nations, in fact especially so, we tend to forget what has genuine value. Those who would survive a major catastrophy, through their own efforts and intellect, are not those who currently sit in ivory towers, counting their GDP sized small change. The people who could farm crops to feed the hungry, make yarn to clothe the naked, build shelter to home the homeless, these people are not folk who know, nor care for the plush circumstances in which you find the worlds richest.

The richest people in the world are some of the most soft handed, work shy, gutless worms ever to walk upon the globe. But they have power, and until we as a free people can work out a way to remove that power from the rich, and give it to the man in the street, until then, we have no way to strike a blow for elbow grease and hard work. Many of us will not live to see a day where the people control the politics, where the majority vote is law, and where the people have more to choose than which suited preening git with nice shoes, screws them next. The reason for that, is that most people are unaware of the alternative, or quietly and secretly terrified of what they might do to change it, what the battle will be like. They made us softer, so that we would be less likely to fight, and made us less intelligent so that we would be less able to see a reason to do so.