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:: 9.30.2003 ::
I recently finished a book by Frank Herbert called The Dosadi Experiment; it's not my favorite book by him by far, but I found some remarkably pertinent statements in it. Here's one:Power held too long within a narrow framework moves farther and farther away from the adaptive demands of changed conditions. The leadership grows ever more paranoid, suspicious of inventive adaptations to change, fearfully protective of personal power and, in the terrified avoidance of what it sees as risk, blindly leads its people into destruction. (p.266) Frank Herbert was apparently deeply interested in the inner workings of politics, both the one-one-one interpersonal relationships and interactions that go into political maneuvering, as well as the overarching plans and designs and plots and conspiracies that develop and intersect and succeed or fail... and eventually become part of history.
Here's another very timely quote from the book:Does a population have informed consent when that population is not taught the inner workings of its monetary system, and then is drawn, all unknowing, into economic adventures? (p. 252) Now I suppose that since the US is actually a republic, where we democratically elect people to make our decisions for us, that as long as those people are informed about the inner workings of our monetary system they will (theoretically) act to avoid drawing their constituencies into dangerous "economic adventures" that we are unable to fully comprehend. Whether that assumption is founded in fact remains a big question. I was reminded, upon reading the above statement, of Paul Krugman's scathing analysis of the Bush administration's plans for Social Security, not to mention their entire economic policy.
Finally, the statement that first made me sit up and pay attention:Does a populace have informed consent when a ruling minority acts in secret to ignite a war, doing this to justify the existence of the minority? History actually has answered that question. Every society... today reflects the historical judgement that failure to provide full information for informed consent on such an issue represents an ultimate crime. (p. 246) [emphasis added] I read this only a few weeks ago, when the mainstream media was finally starting to question the reasons given by our leaders for a preemptive war on Iraq.
And I'll leave you with this little gem:
The more control, the more that requires control. This is the road to chaos. (p. 210)
All page numbers for Frank Herbert's novel, The Dosadi Experiment, refer to the Berkeley Medallion 1978 edition of the book.
:: Deb 12:39 PM :: permalink ::
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