16 maio 2010

gnostocracia

Gnostocracy, like all systems of government, works much better in theory than in practice.  In theory, having the smartest, wisest and most qualified experts make all the decisions means that most of the decisions will be the best that can be made.  In some ways gnostocracy comes closest to the proposals Plato made in his famous Republic, when he calls for the rule of ‘philosopher kings’.
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In practice it has only five little flaws.  Gnostocrats even at their best are prone to mistakes because scientific knowledge is by its nature evolving; the social sciences and the science of extremely complicated systems (think economics) most vital to politics like economics are the most error prone and the least capable of achieving accurate knowledge; political choices involve matters of morals and personal preference which cannot be decided by scientific procedures; no process of selection can be designed which promotes only ‘good’ and ‘honest’ gnostocrats to power and keeps out the charlatans, and the frauds; and finally as a group scientists have interests other than pure science and knowledge (such as promoting gnostocracy thereby gaining power and wealth for themselves).


Walter Russel Mead

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