Negotiator wrote:Everyone wants to be free. Everyone wants their leaders to be just. Everyone wants leadership to be justified.
Exactly what I was talking about. It seems that throughout history, all else has taken a back seat to imposing our will on the world. History is absolutely flooded with special pleading and foreign policies are nearly all case studies in hypocrisy. Here in the U.S., especially recently, we do not entertain candidates notable for their noble sentiments or compassion. Left and right, we shut those candidates out and elect the most ambitious baboons we can find, (not just Trump - ALL of them). Everywhere in the world, we humans make it a nasty habit of electing those least noble, the least interested in doing what is morally or ethically right for everyone.
We rather consistently select the wrong kind of people to lead us.
Which brings me to another point that is not entirely off topic. We may never select better leaders when the average human regularly abuses his own intellect. Both studies and history show that the average human makes decisions first, then engages his intellect to *justify or rationalize* that decision. It's the complete opposite of what we are supposed to do with our brains. It brings to mind something said of Eddy Bernays' theories - that you can change the minds of millions but not the opinion of one man. The single man can be intelligent, thoughtful, rational, and logical. But not the masses. The masses are ruled by their emotions and seek justification or rationalization for their feelings. This is the 'Achilles heel' of democratic and representative systems. The average man does not "correctly think"* and, thus far, no amount of education has managed to adequately alter this condition.
The western world incorporates a good measure of authoritarianism into itself. Most have strong central governments and robust investigative branches. And don't get me started on the ludicrous levels of enforcement in some countries. Freedom and liberty especially take a hypocritical back seat in western foreign policies. So while western governments and citizens pay lip service to the ideals of liberty and freedom, their actions are increasingly authoritarian. Even those who claim to be libertarian are often exposed to be just trying to install themselves as the next authoritarian. Their attitudes completely reverse once they obtain the powerful position they desire.
* "correctly think" means to apply logic and reason to arrive at a decision as opposed to "think correctly" which might be interpreted as merely accepting popular or state opinions.