Why Do We Like Indirect Governance?
On local government corruption in New York:
Where there is money and people with power corruption is very likely. What fascinates me, about America specifically, is how ingrained the representative democracy concept is. Direct democracy is this wild and crazy thing that absolutely and directly = Hitler. There could be an interesting argument why Swiss style direct democracy would not work for a huge country like the US. But what about local government? What about little towns? It’s fascinating that Americans from a very young age learn that the head of local government is the mayor. What would happen if a little town in nowhere decided to mimic Switzerland in governance and eliminates the middle men? Doom?
As an American, I think the biggest reason that the majority of Americans embrace (worship?) representative democracy is because it frees them from feelings of responsibility in the outcome of the government, and means that much less effort they must contribute back to society. Why learn about all the issues and directly vote for what I want, when I could more easily just elect someone else to do all that hard stuff for me so I can spend more time on the sofa watching the drama of Hollywood retards unfold on high definition TV?
As an added benefit, when my elected representatives then vote the “wrong” way, I certainly can’t blame myself, because A) I’m only one of thousands, or millions, of votes, B) I voted for the other guy, or C) I didn’t vote at all / that’s why I don’t ever vote. It’s the exact same reason that companies pay barrels of money for IT support contracts; it’s less work, and when something goes wrong, the blame always shifts to someone else.
Solution: Nuke it from orbit; it’s the only way to be sure…