Letters to the Editor
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First Post
Great article and great conversation. Glenn has a wonderful knack of serving enough booze to get people talking, and also enough snacks that the lamp shades and projectile vomiting are kept to a minimum. The role of host is seriously underrated.
William Timberman @6:56
I am curious if you apply the same concern of differing laws and morality among separate jurisdictions to countries and not just states. In other words, do your same concerns apply to the varying laws and morality of different countries and if so what are some possible solutions?
Should we move towards one global set of laws and morality? If so, should we apply a western version of morality upon the world by force or should we look toward democracy and let the votes fall where they may? I have a feeling if today we held a worldwide one person one vote referendum on what should be moral and legal, we would soon long for the freedom of the Bush administration.
The United States has built into the system a way to express national morality. A constitutional amendment could address every concern you raised in your post. Do you think that constitutional amendments are insufficient to address the need for national norms and morality? Do you think that a national morality is better addressed by federal law? If we are not going to have state sovereignty, shouldn't we just eliminate state government all together?
The only purpose state government seems to have left is to provide more tax revenue to the federal government, to get around double jeopardy and allow the large political parties to rig national elections.
I love democracy but I think it doesn't scale into large systems very well. The larger a democracy grows the less it represents the will and morality of the people. One of the biggest advantages of separate small democracies over one large democracy is that you can move. People of like minds can congregate together and try to prove to the world that their experimentation in valuation has something to offer.
It seems to me that those arguing that federal government should be neutered and those arguing that state governments should be neutered are really only arguing about what is the most efficient size of a democracy.
I like many small democracies because I place a high value on diversity of culture and values. More ways to cook, more ways to dance, more visions of beauty, more philosophers, more evil geniuses and more heroes.
Sorry for the barrage of questions and randomness but I am interested in hearing your thoughts on the matter.