On 21 Nov 2013, at 18:55, Jason Resch wrote:
On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 10:28 AM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]>
wrote:
On 21 Nov 2013, at 15:50, Jason Resch wrote:
On Thu, Nov 21, 2013 at 3:45 AM, Bruno Marchal <[email protected]>
wrote:
On 20 Nov 2013, at 21:35, John Mikes wrote:
Telmo wrote:
"I admire the US constitution too. In fact, my political position is
essentially to follow it (although I like to imagine possibilities
for
peaceful world with further increases in freedom)."
Which Constitution? the one epoch-opening chef-d'oeuvre based on
modernized medieval ideas of those well educated smoking-duelling
slave-owner male chauvinist Forefathers,
who just did not want to pay taxes to the King of England, or the
later "amended" versions of the same obsolete construct making it
into a gun-toting killer - corrupt, faith-ruled money-monger (with
SOME exceptions, thank you).
I join you in admiring the original one - as a relic, an
innovation historical masterpiece FOR THE 18th CENTURY. Not for
the 21st.
My admiration stopped short when I realized the outcome:
a 'special-interest money'-ruled anti-democratic conglomerate,
governing a so called government into committing crimes
(international and domestic) originally excluded
from it's 'modus (regulatio) vivendi'.
How can you imagine a 'peaceful' world with capitalistic (I call
it: econo-feudalistic) principles, imperialistic (oil?) wars and
forcing own interest on other countries? (Not to
mention the availability of all level governance for enough money).
Gödel pretended that the US constitution was inconsistent and
refused to sign it. Einstein intervened and succeeded in changing
Gödel's mind (about not signing it to get the "green card" or the
nationality).
Einstein asked Gödel if the US constitution could prevent something
like a Nazy party to take power, like in Germany, and Gödel said
that it could!
There was a letter describing the event which was long thought to
be lost, but was recently found as described here:
http://morgenstern.jeffreykegler.com/
See the bottom of page 7 in this 2006 letter by the IAS:
http://www.ias.edu/files/pdfs/publications/letter-2006-spring.pdf
Interesting links. Thanks.
I don't think capitalism is the problem, but financial lobbying and
corporatism; + lies, can pervert completely a democracy.
Yes, I think where things stand today is the result of something
different from the flaw Godel found.
Are you sure?
I just mean that while the effect is more or less the same
(subverted democracy), I think the means is probably different than
an exploitation of the same flaw (whatever it was) that Godel found.
What we have today isn't so much a corruption of the laws by which
government operates, but a corruption of people in the government.
My guess is that the inconsistency Godel found in the constitution
involved a means of using the laws against themselves, rather than
what we see today which is a selective enforcement of laws.
Applying laws in full force against some, while not applying the
laws at all against others. This, coupled with bought and paid for
lawmakers and a broken forth estate make it easy for those with
power and wealth to use the government as a tool to further their
power and wealth.
The constitution should not make this possible, but I have not read
all the amendments.
For me both prohibition and 9/11 are ... unsolved.
I would be happy to know Gödel's argument that the US constitution
permits dictatorship.
I am also very curious about it. I've sometimes thought about
whether a constitution can be designed with game-theoretical
principals such that it would be impossible (or highly improbable)
for groups to obtain disproportionate levels of power. Another
interesting idea is that of an AI which, like an automated theorem
prover, can decide on the constitutionality of a given law. The
source code for this could be open source so all can verify it.
This might be called an AItocracy.
Interesting idea. Laws should be formalized, but that can be very
difficult to do, and can be double edged. Even if the code source is
open, the code could hide easily "bugs" that could be exploited by
unscrupulous bandits. But your idea deserve to be developed, and use
with care.
The existence of prohibition of Foods and Drugs in the Land of the
Free is for me still a mystery.
To forbid or discourage research on a plant is ... applied
obscurantism.
Where does that come from?
Likely from a lot of places, the prison lobby, law enforcement
unions, money launderers, synthetic drug companies, paper companies,
and so on.
It has been too quick. I begin to think this was well prepared. I
think prohibition of marijuana has been in a large part a recycling
and correction of the prohibition of alcohol, which did not work well
(for the bandits) because alcohol *is* dangerous, and like always,
prohibition augmented the dangerousness in a too obvious way.
Making illegal a plant with no dangerousness at all is an idea of a
genius, who deserves the Nobel Prize in Crime.
Things which are good for the majority of the population (cheap
alternatives, copyrighted works entering the public domain, patents
expiring to become generic drugs, universal healthcare, direct
democracy, etc.)
(Not sure about direct democracy, especially if the media are under
influence. With the "good" movie and "information", you can make
people voting anything you want ...).
are often bad for the small few that hold an advantaged position
from the unavailability of that good thing.
... which shows a confusion between money-the-mean and money-the-goal.
See how the copyright length gets extended everytime Disney's
cartoons enter danger of entering the public domain ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Term_Extension_Act
).
Such private protectionist laws should not been allowed. It is really
a problem of corporatism. Even universities can fall in that traps. An
academical philosopher told me "truth is only power, don't argue, we
have the money, you don't". As clear as that. Poor world.
Bruno
http://iridia.ulb.ac.be/~marchal/
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