Democracy Responds

Billy Beck, always insightful (even if occasionally bombastic) really nails the trend this morning:

Toward The Fully Self-Aware Termite Heap

The OODA loop of John Boyd applies to politics as well, but whereas Boyd applied it to air-to-air combat initially and then to military engagement generically, the principle is not constructive in the political context. It works to force the enemy to react too fast. He makes mistakes and you then achieve victory. In political discourse, the result of acting too precipitously is meltdown. Speeding up the OODA loop in government will bring down the house.

In my Introduction to Political Science course which I taught for several years there was a block on comparative governments that discussed various forms ranging from totalitarian/authoritarian to socialist, monarchy and both parliamentary and presidential systems of democratic republics. Naturally the tenor was that democracy is "good"...or at least as Franklin said, "the worst form, but better than any other."

The rationale for that conclusion was that there is an inherent belief that democracy will be responsive to the people. Taken at face value, that is good. But, if we examine that concept more critically, we should quickly conclude that responding to what the people want is just like giving children only the candy they want and no nutritious food. What they want is not necessarily what is good for them or their development.

Tempering the responsiveness of democracy is the process of pluralistic politics. Not all of us want the same thing at the same time usually. So, we form parties and voting blocs, interest groups and pressure triangles to build concensus and coalitions to establish policies tempered by reality and judgment. Then democracy is reasonably good. At least it is more good than bad.

Now, as Billy points out, the OODA loop of modern technology allows the great unwashed to whimper and whine about what candy they want for dinner and the power-brokers dispense it immediately. As the pandering accelerates, the sugar in the candy will inevitably have to be reduced. And as the children come off their sugar high of government handouts, the need to respond faster and faster to the demands of the spoiled little brats will increase. To maintain power, the government will become increasingly dictatorial and autocratic. All because the OODA loop has inevitably shortened the response time. Mature and rationale decision-making goes by the way, subordinated to the simple need to maintain power.

It works in one-v-one with guns, but it simply sucks in politics.