Re: Case Insensitive File Systems -- Torvalds Hates Them

On 5/12/25 23:44, Lawrence D'Oliveiro wrote:

On Mon, 12 May 2025 13:04:44 +0100, Pancho wrote:
 

I don't think anyone really suggests the EU aren't corrupt.

 The saying is “power corrupts, and absolutely power corrupts absolutely”.

No, the current political class, start as corrupt. They train in political science. They start with the goal of self enrichment, not ideological idealism.
Watch TV, the first criticism of politicians is not that their policies will be operationally bad, lead to bad outcomes. No, the first criticism of politicians is that they have made a political mistake.
It's bollocks, good leadership, should design good policy and convince the public that policy is good, not slavishly follow the latest fashion. Good leaders have to make some unpopular decisions.

This is why, in democracies, we have checks and balances: different kinds
of power are given to different groups which are supposed to be
independent of each other, and keep an eye on each other. This includes
the judiciary and the press.
 

Not really, these structures are not independent, they are dominated by the establishment. They are designed to protect the establishment, protect the powerful and entitled from mob rule.

And of course voters must do their part. It is in the interest of certain
parties to cultivate cynicism in the system on the part of the general
public, because this way it undermines the whole system and lets those
parties take control, bypassing all the checks and balances. As seems to
have happened in the USA, for example.

I don't think Trump is notably more corrupt than previous presidents, he is just more obvious. I think Bernie Sanders' comment was the pertinent one:
"It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them…. "
Democracy doesn't really decide anything, it is only really a safety pressure valve. Designed to stop government controlled by the elite/establishment diverging from the interests of the public, to the point the public are so pissed off they start a revolution.