Ubuntu & the underdeveloped world

[CB]

On Sat, 2004-12-18 at 23:14 -0800, Karl Hegbloom wrote:
> 
> Truely.  Did you read the Scientific American article about vote
> counting methods, where they explain a method of counting votes called
> "true majority rules"?  It would make things more democratic, I think.

I'll look it up. It is pretty scary in a bicameral system when one
party, representing at the most 50% of the vote, gets control of both
parliaments, thus effectively gaining a temporary dictatorship. That's
what has happened this year here (Australia).

> 
> Capitalism in itself is not the problem... it's an ethics issue ---
> [some excision]
> Forming a corporate entity is not in itself wrong either.

The corporates have now got so out of control, in effect dictating terms
on a massive range of issues to 'democracies' worldwide, that I'm not so
sure about this. I'm beginning to think the establishment of large
organisations whose sole legal remit is to create profit is in itself a
large part of the problem. People within those corporations can have
great ethical integrity, but essentially their owners and the law
require them to disown all human values except one, 'profit'. 

This seems anti-human and intrinsically dangerous, in principle; and I
think our current parlous state is very clearly showing it to be so in
practise.