tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post8471045716884400805..comments2024-02-20T13:32:06.704-05:00Comments on Resource Insights: Can dictators solve our problems?Kurt Cobbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05330759091950742285noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-24492392765948877772011-05-07T04:45:46.150-04:002011-05-07T04:45:46.150-04:00I fear you're right, too, because people who a...I fear you're right, too, because people who are dominated by fear will always run into the fire instead of away from it, <br /><br />And that's exactly what we are doing when we look to some father figure to solve our complex problems, when the only real "solution" to these problems is for people to make the individual adjustments, painful thought they may be, to whatever situation presents itself. <br /><br />The yearning for an all-powerful father figure who can "solve" our problems is only natural in a formerly coddled population conditioned to appeal to their governments for help for all of their problems. <br /><br />However, we need to remind ourselves that our governments have been the world's major murderers. No matter how dangerous it is to live with the mounting violence and criminality that comes with sudden and widespread impoverishment, constant shortages of essential goods, social disorder and civic breakdown, it is much more dangerous to live under a dictatorship. You can find ways to protect yourself against street criminals and even marauding hordes, but you have no protection at all from a government that has turned on its citizens. <br /><br />And that is what the dictator's "solution" to complex problems usually amounts to: "simplify" by eliminating a substantial percentage of the population, beginning with dissenters and ending with "marginal" populations such as unpopular minorities, the ill and handicapped, the poor, and the elderly "useless eaters".The North Coasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14292115710427172625noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8861605.post-15848912142271999642011-05-01T11:01:05.864-04:002011-05-01T11:01:05.864-04:00I suspect you're right. And the thing is that...I suspect you're right. And the thing is that they will probably appear to succeed, at least at first. This is because they will probably simplify, using Draconian measures, some of the existing systems. Unfortunately, these simplifications will probably be unpleasant and will probably cause new problems as their results interact with the remaining systems. Since the underlying predicaments are not being addressed, in the end, after a period of apparent success, I suspect things will be just as bad, if not worse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com