That is a good question. Somehow it constantly leads to our implementing policies that only benefit a very tiny percentage of people at the top of the income ladder and some at the very bottom.
When did the “common good†come to be synonymous with the specific good of a sizeable bloc of voters?
That happens when it always does – when a sizable bloc of voters realize their power to rape the commons for their own benefit. (Or at the very least when someone very powerful realizes they can lead a sizable block of the body politic by promising them the Sun, the Moon and the stars. See Caesar, Julius for practical application.) Come on, Dave, you know political history better than to ask that.
Such concepts as “common good” and “rule of law” are fictions that are useful only so long as virtually everyone believes in them. Once the overwhelming belief ceases to exist, the concepts die faster than a faery at a skeptics convention.
That is a good question. Somehow it constantly leads to our implementing policies that only benefit a very tiny percentage of people at the top of the income ladder and some at the very bottom.
Steve
When did the “common good†come to be synonymous with the specific good of a sizeable bloc of voters?
That happens when it always does – when a sizable bloc of voters realize their power to rape the commons for their own benefit. (Or at the very least when someone very powerful realizes they can lead a sizable block of the body politic by promising them the Sun, the Moon and the stars. See Caesar, Julius for practical application.) Come on, Dave, you know political history better than to ask that.
Such concepts as “common good” and “rule of law” are fictions that are useful only so long as virtually everyone believes in them. Once the overwhelming belief ceases to exist, the concepts die faster than a faery at a skeptics convention.