Stewart Vs Cramer on Daily Show, march 12.

[--Pete]

Hi,

I can't speak for Kan, but my ideal candidates would have to have the reasoning abilities not exceeding those of a nine year-old child. Only under their control will government be small and simple enough to be understood by a layman.

Please explain to me why an organization which has to control and protect a nation full of people can, or even should be, small and simple.

Consider: government has to deal with other nations. It has to do this on many levels, including but not limited to trade, security, defense, law enforcement, and tourism. To perform this function, it needs information, analysis, representatives from and to other nations, people able to 'sell' its viewpoint, people able to strike deals favorable to itself. It needs a military, if for no other reason to keep from being invaded and annexed. And that is just what comes to mind in the few minutes while microwaving my lunch.

But dealing with other nations is only a small part of what government needs to do. It needs to, at the least, protect its citizens from internal predators. Whether these predators are robbers, muggers, home invaders, or whether they are false advertiser, bad loan makers, etc. does not matter.

And the list of what government has to do goes on and on.

Yeah, my ideal is a world full of good, altruistic, rational, intelligent, and educated people, all of whom both know what the right thing to do is and actually do it. Then there would be no need for government. Yes, anarchy is perfection, there is nothing left to take away.

But the real world doesn't work that way. Postulating a government fit for angels and applying it to a world full of humans is a sure recipe for disaster.

So, tell me how. How to govern a real, complex, big country, with many, real, complex people, in a shrinking, real, complex world with a small and simple organization.

--Pete