Re: OT ; Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 03/10/2024 03:20, rbowman wrote:

Hey, what the hell, Hillary figures I'm a deplorable and I'm sure Harris

(Disgusting woman. (Hilary). Harris just looks weak and incompetent. But she is managing to make The Donald look senile and demented. I am sure she will get elected as the lesser of two evils, but the Republicans need to put someone rational and more intelligent up for next time)
The problem is ancient
'Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?'
[who will guard the guards, themselves?]
Once you have a hierarchy, those below are governed by those above, but who governs the apex?
Ultimately you have to break the law and commit revolution or treason to get rid of a ruler you don't like
Unless you have a democracy.
Then you just keep voting the bastards out till one comes along that does a half decent job, and give then a second term.
The whole history of democracy comes from Great Britain, where kings depended on their lords for support, and bad kings came to sticky ends and wars were fought to put a new king on the throne. But the rise of the affluent middle classes of merchants and to an extent artisans, who had serious amounts on money, ended up in a war that really no one won - the English civil war. Parliament won on paper, killed the king and put a 'lord protector' in place  but the damage to the merchant class was massive and people soon got tired of the dreary 'wokeness' of a puritanical theocracy.
And once Cromwell died, the old parliamentarians basically seized back power and formed a new government and invited the king to return.
The merchants were happy with this. They now had a voice in parliament.
For sure women and plebs didn't have a vote, but what did they know about running a country anyway?
--
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.
Groucho Marx