Thoughts and Ramblings

General things I find of interest.

Only Tax Payers Vote

In “Starship Troopers” Heinlein proposed the idea that only citizens can vote and only those who served in the military can become citizens (no inheritance of citizenship). The idea is interesting in that voting is limited to only those with skin in the game (military service). While I read the novel many years ago, recently I considered an similar interesting thought experiment: What if only tax payers can vote? Here, by “tax payers” I mean those who net pay money to the government.

Deep State

It’s no secret that the culture inside Washington is different from the rest of the nation. It is so strong that many elected officials who go to Washington get corrupted into betraying their principles and becoming one of them. They are told “how things are done” and accept it as they chip away at their integrity until they are no longer the same person. This is one of the ways the culture in Washington encourages a type of group-think.

Our "Democracy"

When I was in Greece a bit over a year ago, I hiked up to The Acropolis with some friends. While up there, I heard a tour guide mention that what the ancient Greeks called democracy is not the same as what we call democracy. The reason is because the Greeks had a democracy. What is called “democracy” in western nations isn’t. The founding fathers of the United States expressly didn’t want a democracy as a system of governance.

"Our" Democracy

The phrase “Our Democracy” is often repeated by politicians particularly when when claiming something is a “threat to our democracy.” The phrase is meant to scare because the people will assume that the “our” includes them. What if doesn’t? What if the “our” is not the country as a whole but just the Washington insiders? With this definition of “our” in mind, the phrase “threat to our democracy” make much more sense.

3 Seasons on a Streaming Service

When The Expanse was cancelled on the SYFY channel, I somewhat expected it as it was too good for that network (I was shocked something so good was ever on that channel in the first place). Then when I found out it was picked up by Amazon, I had mixed feelings. While it meant the show would continue, it also meant that it would not persist for more than 3 additional seasons.