Posted on 12/18/2011 9:53:32 AM PST by Olog-hai
You might think that democracies work best when people care and know about the key issues. But a new study argues that for a democracy to function at all, you need lots of ignorant people blindly siding with the majority.
That's the argument put forward by Princeton researcher Iain Couzin and his team, who make the argument that a fully informed electorate would collapse into an unworkable hodgepodge of minority factions or risk being dominated by a single forceful minority group. But if most voters don't really think about the issues, they will just tend to side with whoever is popular, allowing majority rule to continue and democracy to keep functioning. Yeah, you might want to check your last shreds of political idealism at the door for this one.
Couzin and his team argue for what we might call a sweet spot of ignorance. There needs to be just enough people who know anything about the issues to act as leaders for everyone else, but the majority disintegrates if there are too many viewpoints pulling in different directions. And while that seems to pretty aptly describe the last decade (at least) of American political discourse, I'd feel better if I knew just how the researchers arrived at their conclusions.
Why, by studying the behavior of fish, of course. Specifically, they looked at golden shiners, a species that is naturally attracted to the color yellow. …
(Excerpt) Read more at io9.com ...
“for a democracy to function at all, you need lots of ignorant people “
I think this concept was discussed in the Federalist Papers.
Democrats need ignorant people,history proves it.
You need to be more careful transcribing titles.
Which is why we do not live in a democracy.
OK...
" Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
John Adams
"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration leading to ultimate national disaster." --
General Douglas MacArthur
"you need lots of ignorant people"
"allowing majority rule to continue and democracy to keep functioning."
Makes sense, coming from THAT fruitloop thinking he can explain the principles of government by the instinctual behavior of a fish...
What I am constantly amazed by is how the tweakers will ALWAYS think they are the first ones to think up this stupidity. Actually, they have been a pain in the azz for centuries. We can clearly see that demonstrated in example after example...
• Virginia's Edmund Randolph participated in the 1787 convention. Demonstrating a clear grasp of democracy's inherent dangers, he reminded his colleagues during the early weeks of the Constitutional Convention that the purpose for which they had gathered was "to provide a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and trials of democracy...."
• John Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, championed the new Constitution in his state precisely because it would not create a democracy. "Democracy never lasts long," he noted. "It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." He insisted, "There was never a democracy that 'did not commit suicide.'"
• New York's Alexander Hamilton, in a June 21, 1788 speech urging ratification of the Constitution in his state, thundered: "It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity." Earlier, at the Constitutional Convention, Hamilton stated: "We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy."
• James Madison, who is rightly known as the "Father of the Constitution," wrote in The Federalist, No. 10: "... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security, or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths." The Federalist Papers, recall, were written during the time of the ratification debate to encourage the citizens of New York to support the new Constitution.
• George Washington, who had presided over the Constitutional Convention and later accepted the honor of being chosen as the first President of the United States under its new Constitution, indicated during his inaugural address on April 30, 1789, that he would dedicate himself to "the preservation ... of the republican model of government."
• Fisher Ames served in the U.S. Congress during the eight years of George Washington's presidency. A prominent member of the Massachusetts convention that ratified the Constitution for that state, he termed democracy "a government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices and ambitions of their leaders." On another occasion, he labeled democracy's majority rule one of "the intermediate stages towards ... tyranny." He later opined: "Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes." And in an essay entitled The Mire of Democracy, he wrote that the framers of the Constitution "intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism."
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How about; Science needs ignorant people to follow their delusional lies.
Just watched “Science Wars”-—the Truth is that Science NEVER has the Truth....they only have an “idea” of what the Truth MAY be. All scientific theories have fallen and been replaced—and Einstein’s will eventually, just like Newton’s and Euclidian Geometry. Sure, aspect of the theories get to a given result, and ONLY because there is DESIGN in the universe. If only chaos—all theories would be impossible.
SO—what is Truth? Only God. The Founders all knew this—they were in the Age of Reason and the most highly educated men in our history. Wisdom comes from studying history—what works and fails (Burke) and without that intense understanding and study people WILL repeat past mistakes—for human nature NEVER changes (Marx is a fraud). Will to Power is inherent in all human beings—call it selfishness—call it Original Sin—whatever—but all Founders, ALL men of WISDOM knew that if you destroy morality of the masses—you will get chaos. If the mobs are not Virtuous—you will get chaos.
Cultural Marxists since Dewey have been trying to destroy the Foundations of Virtue in this country—(BF SKINNER) to ridicule Christianity (and Judaism) and demean it—because they are rational intelligent religions which give dignity and worth to ALL people. Destroy the ONLY thing which elevates humans above animal behavior-—and you will get Darwinian acts—and reduce men to animals—except in man’s case—the depravity becomes much worse than animalistic—after all, even animals do not defile bodies by sodomy—much less attack their young in such a manner.
But Science claims to be God. They tell people they HAVE the Truth—when they only THINK they have the Truth—and so stupid, uninformed or brainwashed people will always believe them—especially when little children have a school system designed using the Prussian system—one for mass brainwashing and conditioning using BF Skinner techniques, like they put into curricula in the 50’s. (Lenin was friends with Pavlov and Marxists got control of the curricula in the 30’s in America ( Communists Dr. Rugg and Dr. Counts wrote many textbooks in U.S. in 30’s).
All theories, as knowledge expands and is “MORE” complete-—will never know the full REALITY of the world. It is IMPOSSIBLE to have all experiences you would need much less the information and ability to see immaterial things—or things so distance—you see what they “appear” to be, but NOT what they are in reality.
All scientists that claim the Truth is the reason that there is a “Science War”—THEY CAN”T KNOW THE TRUTH—THEY ARE IN PLATO”S CAVE ALMOST AS MUCH AS EVERYONE-—and that is why they TRY to remove Religion (Hubris)-—as if they understand much of the immaterial world-—or can even define it without using abstract mathematics or whatever.
Reality is in the “mind”-—Each person has their own reality???? These arguments have been going on since Plato. NOW, we just have the means by technology to mass indoctrinate and condition people===determine their perceptions and worldview. Parents no longer do shape the worldview of their children like they did until the 70’s. NOW the media completely shapes—along with strangers—the perceptions your children form in their minds of “reality”—how the world works.
The media’s programming glorify dysfunction and relationship killing behaviors-— to create little racists/hedonists/marxists/homosexuals (disunity/antagonism and immaturity). It creates immoral people, ignorant of all understanding of real history, which makes masses who are easy to control.
People have dysfunctional families because of their dysfunctional behaviors, therefore, no security or reasons to fight intrusive government. They will be slaves of the government— pawns—because they will be slaves to their emotions—they have no informed intellect—and their addictions control them and are primary-other people, kids, are always secondary and disposable.
Media just appeals to emotions-—which overrides their intellect—they have no knowledge of anything except how to put on a condom. Useful idiots.
More Books on politics, history and philosophy and Theology were being sold in the US than in Briton in the 18th Century. The Bible and Pilgrim’s Progress were in every home or available.
Free societies have to be well informed so that REASON overcomes the EMOTIONS—that the Truth can be realized as much as possible. All Marxists understand that to destroy societies you control the minds of the children—destroy their knowledge by infusing lies which destroys all possibility of being Virtuous (Heather has two Mommies, Sodomy is good, Capitalism doesn’t work). They twist all history and Natural Law to use emotions to decide Truth (global warming, baby seals).
It destroys the foundation of logic and reason. Children will grow up with cognitive dissonance—only use emotions to decide “Right and Wrong”. A VERY DANGEROUS Hitlerian world. God is the only arbitor of Right and Wrong—when you start using Barney Frank as that standard for our legal system—you get UGLY UNJUST laws that favor some over the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God. You will get Sanduskyies who are deciding Right and Wrong—and we know what godless worldview always creates. CHAOS and EVIL.
So, yes, Democracies are nothing but mob rule of ignorant, non rational people who are ruled by their emotions. The US was formed—because of The Age of Reason and unique in all of history because of the intellectual development of the masses.
The memory of most voters lasts three seconds; any behavior is purely instinctual.
Horsecrap. Democracy, even of the Republic variety, requires an informed and moral electorate. We are moving toward an ignorant electorate and it is being manipulated by the powerbrokers toward outright socialism. An informed electorate reads the Constitution and understands its intent and works to block those who would violate the Constitution.
Idiots. Ignorance may be bliss but makes for nothing but cattle and lets the Morlocks rule over the Elois.
We don't HAVE a democracy, by design.
We have a Republic.
Hence the name of this website.
Cheers!
Interesting concept.. trying to prove democrats are needed..
When....... anyone with an ounce of sense knows they aren’t..
Democrats are for democracy which anyone paying attention knows!!!..
IS MOB Rule by mobsters.. with much proven maleficence..
Democracy breeds socialism which murdered more than a couple hundred million people in the last century..
AND .... made several BILLION more miserable..
Staying stupid not learning from your mistakes is indeed WHAT a democrat is..
How can many millions of illegal proto-democrats from across
the Mexican border be a GOOD THING?..
(tapping fingers) waiting for your answer..
...a new study argues that for a democracy to function at all, you need lots of ignorant people blindly siding with the majority... put forward by Princeton researcher Iain Couzin and his team, who make the argument that a fully informed electorate would collapse into an unworkable hodgepodge of minority factions or risk being dominated by a single forceful minority group. But if most voters don't really think about the issues, they will just tend to side with whoever is popular, allowing majority rule to continue and democracy to keep functioning.This reminds me of that most-famous quote from Mao's Red Book -- "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" but with the full text, which goes on to say, "therefore, the Party must command the gun, the gun must never command the Party."
Placemark. Just no time today for FR!!!
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