Dr. Pianka teaches that 90% of the world’s population ought to be eliminated, and that airborne Ebola might be the best agent to do the job. [2] With scientists such as Dr. Pianka, who needs terrorists?
Over the course of time, these two very different basic philosophies of life (holism and separatism) generate very different political systems. The holistics prefer egalitarian (all are equal) systems, and the separatists prefer elitist systems. I call the series of systems generated by the holistics the “democracy set,” and the series deriving from separatist philosophy the “monocracy set.” Monocracy is rule by one person, as in autocracy.
Quick quiz: Is theocracy (rule by the “Law of God” or a divine ruler) in the democracy set?—or is it in the monocracy set? Right. The monocracy set. Now, wouldn’t you consider it incredibly difficult and foolish to try to convert hard-core theocrats, Jehovah’s Witnesses for instance, into secular gay rights Democrats? You bet. Yet … we, as a nation, now find ourselves embarked upon an equally hopeless effort—a “crusade of democracy” to convert our Islamic brethren, who are profoundly theocratic in their political philosophy, into democrats. Go figure.
Now let me introduce a third term: Fractal. Fractal is short for “fractional version.” Throw a pebble into a still pond and the result is what we call “ripples.” Ripples are water fractals. Each ripple has the same shape as the other ripples, but a different magnitude. Altogether, the ripples form what is called a “fractal set.”
Basic to my theory of the pattern of history is the proposition that political systems are best understood as ideo-fractals (ideological fractals) within “sets.” Thus the democracy set,monocracy set, etc. The formula for a geometrical fractal is, “Same shape, different magnitude”; formula for an ideo-fractal is: “Same essential belief, different magnitude.”
The first democracy (ideo-fractal #1) was established in the ancient city-state of Athens, remembered today as “Solon’s republic.”[3] Solon was an aristocrat called upon by fellow aristocrats to save Athens from revolution. Given absolute power, he did so, by instituting a number of political reforms, the most basic being establishment of a new, human code of justice; a law that applied to each and all equally.
Thus, I suggest that the essential idea behind “democracy” is that of a nation with “one law for all”—one humane, civil law. A “Law of God” can’t fill the bill, for the simple reason that those outside the faith suffer, invariably, a reduced status.
Between the fall of the Roman empire and the establishment of the United States, the West was governed, for the most part, by theocratic precepts, such as the “divine right of kings.” The remarkable and revolutionary American Constitution and Bill of Rights re-articulated the “one law for all” principle of Solon, expanding that principle greatly by recognizing the people in general (“We, the People”) as the source of the one law—the holders of the sovereignty. Next > 1 2 3 4 5
