Friday, March 23, 2007

Political Systems Oversimplified

Ten friends are sitting in a coffee-shop. Eight of them want to order black coffee, and two of them want to order coffee with milk.
  • If the two decide for the whole group that they have to drink coffee with milk, and order ten coffees with milk, we call that dictatorship.
  • If the eight decide for the whole group that they have to drink black coffee, and order ten black coffees, we call that democracy.
  • If they decide to have two separate orders, two coffees with milk, and eight black coffees, we call that liberalism.

Why follow a system where one size fits all (as in majoritarian democracy and dictatorship), when we can give each exactly what they need?!

PS: This blog is not affiliated with any political parties

10 comments:

Tala said...

tb who takes the job of collecting similar orders together or does it naturally happen ?

FadiMalian said...

Assuming they want to remain as a group, who decides which table they will be sitting around? or which cafe they will go to in the first place.

Devil's Mind said...

Fadi Malian: Good point. "Assuming they want to remain as a group," they need to agree on a common place to go. As simple as that.

Now I hear you asking: What if they couldn't agree?! The answer is simple: Each one goes out on his own separately.

But if they go separately, they no longer are a group. True! But I don't see why they insist to be one group if they cannot agree on simple matters. If they want to be a group, they need to be ready to make some compromises.

Tala: The waiter takes the orders... DAAH!

Now seriously, since this is an oversimplification, I don't mean to get to all the details. I guess there has to be some committee that manages these details (call it a government if you want). Most countries are managed by services. The whole economic structure of businesses, jobs, and services all interact together to serve the community.

Tala said...

the waiter is the government hahaha
i doubt this one :P

Government doesn't give you a choice. maybe every government changes the whole menu from time to time. but you pick from what they have to offer, sometimes there is just an entry fee without any services added yet.

Devil's Mind said...

Well, my analogy was only to say that we don't all have to make the same choice.

But if you want to think about it that way, then we should say, the ten friends can plant the coffee, harvest it, bake it, and make their own coffee. Thats an option. The other option is to pay the coffee-shop for its services. But sure, they don't have to buy from the coffee-shop. Its just an option.

Or in simpler words, its a person's right to be independent of the government. The government should be just a service provided to its subscribers.

Tala said...

True

Anonymous said...

seriously!
i think that you are still angry because i chose the "m3assel" of the "argeeleh" on thursday. stop bitching about it! next time u chose...gal dictatorieh gal!

The Observer said...

I guess that I would go with liberalism then :)

Devil's Mind said...

Luckily, several issues in our daily life are resolved the liberal way. Unfortunately numerous others are not.

Most basic freedoms, like say freedom of religion, emphasize that each person should be given the freedom to follow the religion he chooses. On the negative side, some religions (Islam for example) ban changing religion, and such act is punished by death or exile. This obviously shouldn't be acceptable.

Sexual orientation is usually handled in democratic views. Thats to say, since heterosexuality is dominant in numbers, its assumed to be generalized over the whole community.

LGBT rights movement are trying to shift the sexual view to the liberal view that each person should choose his sexuality, without the need to follow the majoritarian view.

I mean -for me- democracy is a corrupt system, almost as corrupt as dictatorship. I don't see why some people are fighting to implement democracy. Maybe democracy is a little better than dictatorship, but it still does violates the rights of the minorities.

Anonymous said...

intersting post