Hello Michiel,
DP>>>> The only chance was in 2000,
MV>>> I don't think that really was the last and only chance.
MV>>> However...
DP>> It doesn't matter how people vote. If you have total control over the
DP>> voting system, you can make up any numbers. 40% can become 70% with
MvdV> no
DP>> problem.
MvdV> Of course. But it was not always like that after the end of the cold war.
MvdV> Remember Glasnost and Perestroyka? Yes, that is gone now, but in the
early
MvdV> days of Putin he still could be voted out.
Gorbachev dissolved the USSR, making it a thing of the past.
Putin yearns to bring it back.
DP>> But when you have total control over the media, the courts, the
DP>> police, and the secret service, it's very difficult to even make
DP>> people believe that they can change anything.
MvdV> It was not always like that...
My grandfather emigrated to the USA from Sicily. He was brought
here on a boat by my great grandfather. The dictator in Italy at
the time was the one before Il Duce. My great grandparents had
13 children. Made for a lot of trips across the ocean.
MV>>> to /stay/ in power. For as long as possible. At all cost...
DP>> It wasn't something we were taught in Soviet schools... The main idea
DP>> was that you have to trust someone who is in power at the moment -
DP>> your teacher, your boss, your party or state leader. Orthodox church
DP>> always says - do not oppose your state leader, it's a sin.
MvdV> And who told you to trust the leaders of the Ortthodox church? Your
parents?
What is your name? The name your parents chose to name you.
Whatever your beliefs, they are those taught to you by your
parents. We believe what others want us to believe, rather
than what we believe, because we do not want to know what
to believe.
DP>> Fidonet was different because it was a democracy :)
MvdV> Fidonet is not and never was a democracy.
Winston Churchill is alleged to have said democracy is the least
bad form of government. Although most people would say he was right,
the reality is far different.
The best form of government is a benevolent dictatorship.
With me in charge.
MV>>> Putin isn't the only one. There is a world wide trend for elected
MV>>> leaders to turn into autocrats. Xing Pi, Erdogan, Bouterse,
MV>>> Netanyahu, Orban, Maduro. And maybe Trump and Wilders...
DP>> People like simple answers to difficult questions and strong populist
DP>> leader is a very simple answer.
MvdV> Bottom line: "the people" are too naive for democracy. :(
The Italian people needed Il Duce.
The German people needed der Fuhrer.
The American people need their Stable Genius.
That is how the world works.
One to lead, the rest to follow.
DP>> Russia is always providing very good examples of how not to do things.
DP>> The previous one was communism, now it's time for a new one :)
MvdV> Not "always". 200 years ago Russia was a country not much different from
the
MvdV> rest of Europe.
Napoleon Bonaparte tried to make it part of his French Republic.
Adolf Hitler tried to make it part of his Third Reich.
Geert Wilders tried to make it a New Amsterdam ...
DP>> I am just curious why it's always something from Germany? Carl Marx
DP>> was German, the current Putin's regime is very much based on German
DP>> ideas from 193Xs..
MvdV> Trotsky was not German...
Neither was Lenin. Or Stalin. Or Kruschev. Your point?
For Life,
Lee
--
You can tell Monopoly is an old game because there's a luxury tax and rich
people can go to jail.
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