Debbie Broome wrote about the absence of dialogue in government, and Doc
Holloway wrote about the problems of a process that gives power to a 3rd
party. I think that's right on the money.
When de Tocqueville described the American genius, he called it popular
democracy--Americans' willingness to band together to get things done.
Note that this has nothing to do with whether we vote to elect our
officials in a representative democracy.
Note, too, that while popular democracy is an inherently cooperative
process, government is an inherently adversarial process. The 3rd party
(govt) tells A what to do for B's sake or takes money from A and gives
some of it to B.
Note, finally, that the two processes are incompatible. As government
expands, however noble the intentions, community declines.
--"William Buxton" <wbuxton@hns.com>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>