“When you live under such an oligarchy, there is always some crisis or the other that takes priority over boring stuff such as healthcare and pollution. If the nation is facing external invasion or diabolical subversion, who has the time to worry about overcrowded hospitals and polluted rivers? By manufacturing a never-ending stream of crises, a corrupt oligarchy can prolong its rule indefinitely.”
Yuval Noah Harari
“And I begin to realize that in every chapter of Shortest Way Home—indeed, almost on every page—there is an expression of the same underlying idea, which is that you can substitute experience with problem-solving skills, and approximate perspective, ideology, even morality with sheer intelligence and boldness.
This closely resembles the arrogance of tech billionaires who believe that although they have neither the knowledge nor the experience nor the wisdom, they can solve the world’s problems anyway, because, well, because look how successful they’ve been at everything else.
You almost want to cheer them on. Until you realize that they are dead wrong, that if they want to help solve the world’s problems they had better stop sucking all the oxygen and money out of the room and start paying taxes and letting there be a return to a balance of power.”
Dan Simon, Mayor Pete’s autobiography says it all
“But there is a sort of ‘Ok guys, you’re mad, but how are you going to stop me’ mentality at the top.”
Robert Johnson, Audacious Oligarchy
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“Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant funds demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.”
– Douglas MacArthur
Sounds a lot like Yuval Noah Harari’s quote.
Can’t say I like Harari’s solution to the problem, though.
Yes, there is a definite tone of “government paternalism” implied in what the government “should” be worried about while they get us to worry about other stuff. Just imagine if the government didn’t stick its nose into ANY of it. How many fewer problems we would all be facing.
Old age (read:experience) & treachery will always overcome youth & skill.
Seen on a bumper sticker