Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kabwj 2534 days ago
People prefer happiness to freedom. I don’t think that democracy is vital to the wellness of a society. It’s just that until now all autocratic societies were ruled by shitheads and they inevitably collapsed. Now we’re seeing an autocratic society that is working fine because it’s being led by intelligent, not-too-selfish people. This is a breath of fresh air since in my opinion democracy is well past its heyday and we have to explore new options.
3 comments

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynastic_cycle It is just a matter of time for the corruption to set in again.
> I don’t think that democracy is vital to the wellness of a society.

Well, it depends. If you're well above the typical middle-income country, I think you'd still benefit from more democracy. Democratic countries tend to benefit from increased openness, which is vital to creating wealth and avoiding disruptions of all sorts when you're at the forefront of economic development - and we see this even in historical times where non-democratic polities were far more common.

> It’s just that until now all autocratic societies were ruled by shitheads

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX_of_France#Veneration_...

Not to mention that almost all democratic societies also end up cyclically ruled by shitheads and selfish out of touch elites (and we're at that point well now).
Sorry, I meant in the last 100 years or so.