The Random Comic Strip

The Random Comic Strip

Words to live by...

"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."

[Spanish Proverb]

Ius luxuriae publice datum est

(The right to looseness has been officially given)

"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."

Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.


Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Opposition


In my travels on the internet, I read a number of online newspapers but mostly the NY Times and the Washington Post. What I find disturbing is the number of people in comments who appear to be in favor of a single party government. I do not understand this.

I realize that people who comment do not represent the majority of readers nor do they represent the majority of any political party. Still, it disturbs me that anyone would ever think such a government would be a good thing to have.

Essentially, until the advent of multi-party systems of government, people throughout the world lived under single party systems. Autocratic systems are single party. Dissent is "discouraged"... forcefully. This means that monarchies are essentially single party systems (support the Crown or else), as are dictatorships, communist states, and any system where the opposition is heavily divided. What good is a multi-party system where the leader's party is overwhelmingly strong and the opposition is divided between weak and scattered political parties? These are essentially single party systems because the preponderance of power rests with one party.

Yet so many people seem to want cooperation over opposition.

Maybe it's my contrary nature, or perhaps I never grew out of the rebel phase of my teen years. But I think healthy opposition is a good thing, a viable opposing political party keeps the one in power honest. Or should. Too much cooperation is scary to me.



2 comments:

Joe Pereira said...

I agree Douglas - a strong opposition is healthy and necessary for the wheels of democracy to work. Those who seek single-party politics should be encouraged to learn history, because it is evident they don't know enough about the subject and have not yet learned from past mistakes

Douglas said...

Most, Joe, are young, I suspect.