Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Contacting Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Federation handle:
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
Federation handle:
@ChrisMayLA6@zirk.us
Emeritus Prof Christopher May's Posts
Emeritus Prof Christopher May has 224 posts.
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
I think peak-democracy was in the aftermath of WW2 - for a decade or so the recollection of what dictatorship could do, drove a generation to (for the most part) think about democracy & social democracy as the way to save humanity... as those memories faded, so did the notion of a democracy that sought to promote a general well-being.
I also think your distinction is correct; there's nothing to stop libertarian compassion; the distinction is more about what form social responses take
@ChrisMayLA6 So a problem here is that we forget. All the bad things fade from memory and only the good things with authoritarianism are remembered.
How does one make people remember?
As the old guard dies off, the young ones have never experienced anything else, which makes it easier for authoritarians as well.
I wonder what made current young democrats passionate about democracy?
For democracy to work, a culture of democracy must be maintained. For a culture to be maintained, there
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
that it is natural or organic.
Democracy needs to be built & then maintained, but when those in power do not want to maintain it (or maintain parts of it) then the technologies you mention (& others) can be used against it.
If we wanted to protect democracy we could use the same tools to do so.
So, for me its the other way round; how is a modern aristocracy has been able to (re)gain control of the levers that democracy had shifted to others (or perhaps they never really did let go)
@ChrisMayLA6 This sounds like the theme for another book! ;)
Do you think there was a high point of democracy?
I imagine that when monarchies fell, citizens and the public had a new "toy" and a new world, and I imagine that idealists then remembered only too well the evils of monarchy and royal secret services and what they did, to prefer democracy and someone else in the lead, over their own personal power.
But it seems to me, that the democratic spirit has faded over the past two
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
In response to this post@h4890
Hmmm.... but in one sense that would be pretty much the system that the modern state was developed to shift society away from; if politics is cyclical then we might expect that to happen, in a sort of analytical way. However, what then remains is the reasons that the system was regarded as politically unacceptable in the first place, surely?
@ChrisMayLA6 This is the truth! Modern democracy is one of the youngest systems of governance we have. Perhaps it can even be argued that the few "anarchic" or libertarian attempts that have been made in history have lasted longer than modern western democracy? As such... it has not been as battle tested as monarchies, oligarchies, theocracies and aristocracies.
I find this to be a very interesting insight! Has our technology, culture and knowledge developed in such a way as to enable
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Emeritus Prof Christopher May
If politicians favour the views of (actual) voters when making policy, while minorities who're ignored feel so disenfranchised they won't bother voting, reinforcing a focus on those who do, can democracy survive, even in the compromised form we currently having in the UK?
The IPPR think that we may be reaching the point where the legitimacy of the political system is bought (perhaps violently?) into question.
Not impossible to fix, but not easy either.
#democracy
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/01/turnout-inequality-uk-elections-close-to-tipping-point-ippr
@ChrisMayLA6 This is one of the problems of modern democracy. Its legitimacy decreases year after year, and ultimately, it will become a show for public servants, for the benefit of public servants. Since their incomes are directly dependent upon taxing the productive classes, ultimately they are the only ones who will care.
The productive classes will either become unproductive, or they will evade taxes.
My hope is that ultimately, people will jist lose interest in the government
by h4890 ;
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