[cs702]

"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." - Winston S Churchill, November 11, 1947

Source: https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-...

[ivm]

"I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

"I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes."

"I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion."

- Winston S Churchill

[kirk781]

Churchill was a straight up racist. He was also indirectly responsible for the Bengal famine of 1942. On being told about the famine, his only response was "Isn't Gandhi dead yet". Of course, it helps that he ended up on the winning side of the war. What confuses me is that his contemporary, Stalin also ended up on the winning side though later on, his deeds[mis-deeds] came to the fore and he is now known as one of the evil men of the last century[atleast in terms of people killed]. Churchill, however, was voted the Greatest Briton of 20th century for some reason.

[lacker]

Churchill, however, was voted the Greatest Briton of 20th century for some reason.

Well, Britain didn't get taken over by the Nazis. That's kind of a good accomplishment

[kirk781]

Soviet Union too didn't get over-run by Nazis and they infact, contributed largely to the war effort[much more than the British]. By your logic, Stalin should be the most worshipped guy of the last century.

[ivm]

...of a huge number of people.

But war victories usually come with cultural domination and glorifying winners' favorite mass murderers as a bonus.

[gkya]

Plato compares different forms of government in the Politician dialogue (oligarchy/aristocracy, tyranny/monarchy, democracy; 302-303), where the democracy is described as the least effective form of government among all when good and honest instances of each are compared, and the least harmful one when bad and corrupt instances are compared. That's because it's static given how much effort and involvement it takes to even decide on minutia; and big, important decisions are very hard to make. Today this definition seems relevant and partly true to me, and I believe it is mostly an acceptable trade-off given the tendency to corruption of those who are in power (I have this vague thought that this tendency is probably a part of the stereotype of the politically-successful person).

[mattmaroon]

And we tried anarchy plenty. Power, unfortunately, abhors a vacuum.

[confounded]

Anarchism is much more than the absence of a national government.

When and where was it tried plenty?

[mattmaroon]

From the dawn of humanity until a few thousand years ago. So roughly the first 99% of our existence, not to mention the hominids from which we evolved.

[jessaustin]

Could we say, then, that anarchism is better for the environment than most systems of government?