At the end
of this piece you will find a list and pictures of a small number of the
hundreds of empires that have existed in history. I was amazed at the
relatively short length of most of these empires. The obvious exception is the
Roman Empire that we westerns are likely most familiar, which brought me back
to Alex de Tocqueville’s analysis of the American Experiment in Democracy. Of
course we don’t call ourselves an empire today but a superpower. We also have a
relative short history as typical of many empires. And, you have heard me
comment upon Fareed Zacharia’s book “Post American World.”
Now I do not
believe the American experiment will disappear in the Post American World, but
it will no longer be an empire/superpower that it once was. But I think there
are incredible dangers facing the American experiment that could cause us to
self destruct. The big issues I see are: 1)radicalization of parties, in our
case the Republican Party who has become incapable of find a middle way or even
consider compromise on any issue it holds dear. 2)An economy where the wealth
is so inequitable in may bring down the entire economy. 3)The lost of a strong
middle class as a result of 2. 4)The need of radical election reform where the
rich cannot buy the government or put them in debt to them. 5) Similar to 4
ending the lobby influence where the rich and major corporate America the ultra
rich can dictate laws to their benefit. Unless, we can get the election process
under control again and more equitable elections, I fear for our country’s
future.
Even then I
wonder about the American experiment in the current world of speed. Everything
moves so fast today, and democracy by nature is slow. It is rather like what is
said about education, “it takes 50 years to get a new idea working in
education.” With the speed of information today, our government just may not be
able to keep up with the dodges of special interests groups even if they try.
Now for an
abrupt return to my college days when I fell in love with philosophy and in
particular The Dialogues of Plato. I
don’t think I’ve ever recovered. Here’s a simplistic description of the society
Socrates pictures in Plato’s Republic – citizen states. There were three
classes: soldiers/police who would protect the society, the work force makes
the things we need and providing the services we need in our society and the
government to lead the country. What Plato called the leaders of government
were Philosopher
Kings. Doesn’t that have a nice ring to it? In back of this whole idea
was the concept of a just society, and the roles people needed to have such a
just society. But the idea of having the brightest of the bright, the best
educated as the leaders of the government appeals to me. This is different the
electing old military heroes (at least they have leadership experience), a time
honored process in our country or the one who can get the most money together
to bamboozle the electorate to make us think they are best for us.
In our
country if you want to be a teacher you have to have a degree and a license to
allow you to teach. If you want to be a military person or a police person, you
need training and a license to do so. If you want to be a plumber or an
electrician you need to be trained and licensed to do these things. You could
even say if you want to be a criminal, get caught go to prison and let your
fellow prisoners teach you to be a professional criminal. This list could go on
and on. My particular peeve is ministry, in which those of my era had to have
college degrees and then advanced degrees and practical training as lawyers and
doctors do in order to be a pastor. Now we’ve got a bunch of folk with much
less education or those who just buy a degree off the internet and can call
themselves a pastor. Hmrph!
But what
does it take to become a legislator and leader in government? Nothing, just the
ability to get people to elect you no matter what you qualifications. The one I
hear the most is candidates saying they have run a business therefore they know
how to run a country. Bull. A trained economist will tell you there is a lot of
difference between microeconomics and macroeconomics. Let me put it this way.
There is a big difference between household economics and business economics
and government economics. They work differently and the rules that apply to one
does not necessarily work the best for another. Debt management is a big
illustration I won’t get into.
If you want
to become a governmental leader does it not make sense that you have a degree
in political science? Should not a degree in government be a requirement to
work in the government? Plus you should have advanced degrees and know how to access
the people of excellence in those fields related to government such as
economics.
The founding
fathers were mostly men of strong liberal arts education and were familiar with
the governmental options of the day. They were long and hard to develop a
system to work for our new country knowing that they could not anticipate
everything and that the government would grow and change and the country did.
But the great assumption they made was to have a sound government they needed
and well educated electorate. And that has become less and less true.
Oh we have
an educational system that has its ups and downs. Currently it seems primarily
focused on getting folk jobs. That’s good, but not enough to make them educated
voters. The liberal arts education, strong knowledge in history, economics,
government, etc. are being lost on primary, secondary and advanced educational
levels.
As a result
we have politicians who expertise is in getting elected and reelected but not
necessary much about the job they have when elected. Plus we have an electorate
that knows a lot about vested short term interests for themselves and theirs,
but a lack of background on the issues of the day. Plus we have a media who is
motivated to sell news rather than report news accurately and evenly. And we
have a lack of laws requiring honestly in political claims and false claims
about their opponents.
Now I am not really suggesting we have philosopher kings to
run our country, but there is a lot of merit in that system which trained its
leaders to lead based upon the principles of justice. Today we have no
principles.
Just some interesting
stuff as though this article is long enough already.
GDP size
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lTduTwqtjY utube video of empires, it is absolutely
great.
The pictures of the following didn't come through just watch the above video, is is more fun anyway.
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