Reply #7: Personal Political Philosophy? [View All]

[Deny and Shred]

Isn't political philosophy about the social, legal, economic ways we interact? I think the author is looking at a bigger picture than how we as individuals perceive our role. Indeed, if I may run the risk of editorializing, he is positing that a personalized view of exclusive self-interest is part of the problem. By thinking that "Boobus Americanus" (great term, wcepler) ought never consider the collective condition, the situation can never change, elites will always survive, thrive, and dominate.

wcepler - I am wondering if you've ever read Machiavelli's The Discourses. To editorialize again, his famous Might Makes Right from the Prince is commonly misconstrued as his cynical prescription about how we all should act. In actuality, he means it as a warning; i.e., if we the citizens are not careful, some one or some group will take control and dominate us all.

In the Discourses he extols the Roman Republic because they understood the flaw in human nature. Ambitious people WILL gun for the throne, and it takes a politically vibrant, sometimes riotous populace to avoid it. He rejects Plato's notion of Guardians, that all we need to do is find some incorruptible people amongst us and make them the uber-cops, along the lines of Jedi. Machiavelli's basic premise is incorruptibility is impossible. Since politics is the conditions under which we agree to be governed, those who wish to rule will go into it and do whatever they can to bend others to their will.

Let me know if you have.