That’s the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise, but age also disconnects them from the needs of the world of today.
That’s the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise,
No, they don’t. Under a representative democracy (what most of The West is at this point) your “rulers” are not meant to be kings who duck into their study to decide what is most Just.
Their responsibility is to surround themselves with experts and to listen to them. Your representative should not need to study economics and computer science to understand what Google is. They just need to be able to understand a wikipedia level overview so that they can communicate with the scientists and economists on staff.
Similarly, your representative should not be sitting and deliberating on what is Right. They should instead be communicating with their constituents to do what is right by them. Which works better when they aren’t lugging around a canister of oxygen everywhere they go.
Which is why we tend to not use the word “rulers” anymore and instead focus on “civil servants”.
There IS an argument that the President/Prime Minister needs “wisdom” because they may need to make very quick decisions. But even that is mostly about listening to the domain experts who just happen to be generals in that case.
That is actually a good reason to have a wide variety of ages in government, so that there is a mix of those connected to the world today and those that have more wisdom.
That’s not a bad idea. But then you have to outlaw money in politics, because as soon as money is in the picture, it invariably favors rich old dudes, or people with connections that can only be formed over time.
In other words, nothing like this will happen in America in my grandchildren’s lifetime, let alone my children’s or mine.
That would help, but it isn’t just the money. Both Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were able to secure offices when they were right around 30 years old and both lacked solid support from their own party. Entrenched political parties are arguably an even bigger barrier to involving younger participation in government, not just because the parties control their own purse strings but because they resist up and coming candidates by treating office holders like they have tenure.
The only problem I see with that is, even though I’m 40, the government and corporations are all still run by people older than me.
Hell, some of the folks in Congress are older than my parents.
That’s the tragedy of government: rulers and lawmakers need to be old enough to be wise, but age also disconnects them from the needs of the world of today.
No, they don’t. Under a representative democracy (what most of The West is at this point) your “rulers” are not meant to be kings who duck into their study to decide what is most Just.
Their responsibility is to surround themselves with experts and to listen to them. Your representative should not need to study economics and computer science to understand what Google is. They just need to be able to understand a wikipedia level overview so that they can communicate with the scientists and economists on staff.
Similarly, your representative should not be sitting and deliberating on what is Right. They should instead be communicating with their constituents to do what is right by them. Which works better when they aren’t lugging around a canister of oxygen everywhere they go.
Which is why we tend to not use the word “rulers” anymore and instead focus on “civil servants”.
There IS an argument that the President/Prime Minister needs “wisdom” because they may need to make very quick decisions. But even that is mostly about listening to the domain experts who just happen to be generals in that case.
That is actually a good reason to have a wide variety of ages in government, so that there is a mix of those connected to the world today and those that have more wisdom.
That’s not a bad idea. But then you have to outlaw money in politics, because as soon as money is in the picture, it invariably favors rich old dudes, or people with connections that can only be formed over time.
In other words, nothing like this will happen in America in my grandchildren’s lifetime, let alone my children’s or mine.
That would help, but it isn’t just the money. Both Zohran Mamdani and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were able to secure offices when they were right around 30 years old and both lacked solid support from their own party. Entrenched political parties are arguably an even bigger barrier to involving younger participation in government, not just because the parties control their own purse strings but because they resist up and coming candidates by treating office holders like they have tenure.
Yes, and Bernie Sanders is old as dirt yet a decent politician in touch with young people.
But they’re exceptions. We need AOCs and Mamdanis and Sanders as the norm in politics.
And they’ve been running it since your parents were younger than you now. This has got to change, get our parents politicians out of office!