Reply #37: Why do they care about those things? They want them for themselves... [View All]

[originalpckelly]

I don't honestly believe they could give a shit about anyone else, or at the very least, we cannot count on that. Our system, though flawed, does take into account the worst motivations in humanity, not the best, because in a situation where the fuckers don't care about us, there'd be no recourse. It's called checks and balances, we're not naive and reliant upon people in power to simply be good little boys and girls, there are structural elements of our system that prevent them from being bad.

The problem, however, is that despite the various checks and balances, there is a fundamental flaw in the idea of representative government. Representatives are always subject to bribery (as we have seen with lobbyists), extortion, and then there's the whole fact that most of these people are self-interested twerps who don't give a fuck about us until we get uppity and threaten their offices. Unfortunately, this system only serves to force them to appease us or make it look like they're doing the right thing, while in secret, or maybe not so secret, they're completely fucking us over.

It is most undemocratic to assume that 535 people can know what's best for us. They don't know me, you, or any of us well enough. We may have met them once or twice, or even worked for them, but beyond that it's not much. This is a simple numbers game, and the numbers are stacked against representative government and in favor of democracy.