From: Tony Garnock-Jones (tonyg@kcbbs.gen.nz)
Date: Thu Jun 27 2002 - 05:36:13 MDT
On Thu, Jun 27, 2002 at 01:32:20AM -0700, Samantha Atkins wrote:
> Stephen Reed wrote:
> > Recent history shows that national governments will surrender sovereignty
> > for a greater good. Witness the EU and NAFTA.
>
> NAFTA has not been for the greater good.
And there's certainly intelligent debate about the merits of the EU,
too, at least here in Sweden. It seems many people here believe the
government is at least slightly out-of-control. Similar, though more
vague, sentiments can easily be found in the UK and New Zealand, too, in
my experience.
Which leaves us in a way with "national governments will surrender
sovereignty occasionally at random" (ie., under the control of something
other than those who elected them).
And, in fact, "national governments are not rational" (from the POV of
their electors, that is, since the govts are acting based on a hidden
variable, ie. the wishes of the non-electing controlling
entity/system/etc).
I don't want a nonsentient memetic replicator (such as a government or
church) in control of my singularity, thank you very much ;-) All it
wants to do is copy itself! ;-)
> don't think the US government has any clear demonstrated ability
> to do anything except [...] for the sake of monied interests.
... or something! What the hell is really going on? I get this queasy
feeling sometimes that we're cells in a much larger organism or entity
that we can't perceive properly...
> It is a pity we in the US no longer in reality practice
> constitutional, representative government. By the time the
> "public" gets around to "judging" it will be far too late.
As with EU, NAFTA, privatisation efforts in New Zealand, the UK, etc.
Once people noticed what was happening, it was too late.
Tony
-- "How's my programming? 1-800-DEV-NULL"
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