Originally Posted by
Singu
The most important thing is the need for criticism and alternatives. Democracy dies when there's no longer any criticisms or alternatives. So would science. From criticisms, alternatives are born, and from alternatives, criticisms are accepted.
So why is democracy "good"? Is it only because it's a given that it's naturally good? Is it because the majority is always right? Because it protects individual rights?
Well it's really because it has the possibility and the potential for unlimited growth and progress, which comes from offering criticisms and alternatives. However it's not necessarily certain and stable, and it could always turn into authoritarianism or something other. It's actually kind of miraculous that this is continuing for hundreds of years, as that has never happened in the history of humankind. And it might just not be a matter of luck or coincidence, but it's because there have been some ingenious systems and institutions put into place to make it a stable, functioning system. Basically, it's stable because there have been people that have been working at it to made it stable.
You can't say that "This is the only way, and nothing else", and that goes for both the right and the left and somewhere in between. At some point, you realize that you're heading to the wrong path and you're going to have to change the direction.
Some might say that politics is the art of making compromises. They say A, and you say B, and you listen to both points and arrive at compromise C.
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