Dear Paul
why do you raise your voice within the public sphere of democratic systems?
Why don't you just become a dictator and do it better?
Don't waste your time with blaming conservative governments and xenophobic
populations, this is not moral news for us. There are more important tasks
waiting for you.
Success!
Wolfgang Zierhofer, University of Nijmegen
PS: A short comment for other list members: I think Paul is perfectly right
to raise the issue of the moral legitimacy of democracies. Indeed, there is
no republic on this planet that could honestly claim to protect those moral
rights, which its citizens consider as absolutely basic for themselves, for
all human beings irrespective in what ways they come in contact with the
republic. Democratic systems are still based on an inclusion/exclusion
perspective (the idea of a self-constituting community), which might have
been acceptable for relatively immobile societies, but which becomes
inadequate in respect of an increasingly integrated world-population. While
these are good reasons to reconsider the world-wide organisation of the
political and legal sphere, I cannot see how simple empirical arguments of
this kind could help us in a meaningful way to decide between "democracy"
and "dictatorship".
Actually, I'm even afraid that thinking in such uncouth terms is itself an
assault on humanity. However, this may mean nothing to some people.
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