Quote:
Originally Posted by NatCh
It depends on how you define "democracy." 
The real problem with a direct democracy is that there are more stupid people than smart ones, and if everyone gets an equal say, all you do is guarantee that the stupid thing gets done.  |
Interesting discussion on democracy, however I definitely don't agree with this statement.
I have some very conservative friends who said "idiots voted for Clinton," forgetting, I hope, for the moment that I had voted for Clinton. Some liberal friends said exactly the same "how stupid did you have to be to vote for Bush" hoping once again, that they overlooked my vote for Bush when lumping me in with the "stupids." (True story!)
Basically, in politics, I've come to the conclusion that "stupid people" are the ones who don't agree with you (or me).
In terms of true "stupidity" I just don't think that many people are mentally deficient. Uneducated, possibly, but not mentally incapable of making sound decisions -- as even the uneducated can form valid political opinions.
I think a much larger problem with democracy today has become the legal jargon in laws. I vote "no" on the vast majority of laws in my state simply because I cannot figure them out, and I know many laws get passed with hidden stipulations. For example, "The Telecomunications Decency Act" used as a hook to pass "The Telecommunications Act" of which it was a part. I don't think this is a function of my stupidity (though my liberal and conservative friends may disagree
), but a function of laws gone mad... or "lawyer hell" as I like to put it.
In terms of Copyright Law -- which would need to be changed for us to be able to legally download texts freely -- the problem is more complex. The economic factor is the greater influence on the law here. Authors won't make money if everyone legally downloaded their work for free -- same goes for movies and music. To change the law, we first must change the "economics of the arts" -- to, say, a comission-based system as employed in the 1700s for Classical Music (the king would comission a work from Mozart, or employ Haydn as court composer). This way, the artist can eat, pay rent, and send their kids to school, and
we can enjoy the artists work freely.
But, as it stands, the artist gets payed on a per-sales basis, and copyright law exists to protect that. When those economics change, copyright law might change.
-Pie