. . Subject: Re: How much Elitism is acceptable? . . . . . . > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... Right, the meaning of the word changed, or they used a rather idiosyncratic way to use the word 'democracy.' One may note the fact that it is the people in general who want the State to formulate a Constitutional document, rather then that some ruling class is wise enough to that end. Compare Cuba for example, the people wanted a Constitution. I also think that people of today are not exactly the same as they where during the days of Aristotle, for example if you would restrain a foreign ethnicity to a pole on a city square and proceeded to torture the individual, a few centuries ago people would flock to laugh at the spectacle; my guess is that today the people are more likely to call the police and try to liberate the victim. Not only a different meaning to the word, but a different behavior from those selfsame masses. > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... > ... Yes, a lot more. I note there are fundamental problems with the party democratic model: it pits groups against each other, then a cold-war 'vote' which is a mere stand-in to avoid actual civil war (where the majority would tend to win), and then make up and rule. It is also terribly rough, you can only vote on bundles, and has a great risk of populism because the distance voter/politician is great. The model for democracy we are using all over the world has fundamental issues that can not be resolved without fundamentally changing it into another system imho. That changing is our historical task. We must complete this asap, at least within the next 20 years, 10 is way better. The debate on how to change the model to something better should by now be on all TV stations, the major effort of culture in our day. Everyone agrees that the current Governments are corrupt, which begs the question: what now, ... -- http://www.socialism.nl