I live in a great megalopolis surrounded by millions of fellow creatures but my aberrant political opinions leave me completely and utterly isolated. I have a wife, dogs, children and co-workers, but intellectually I may as well be living alone in the farthest reaches of the South Pacific on one of those remote atolls devastated by atomic testing in the fifties. Hence the title of this diary. I cast my anomalous opinions into the blogosphere time and again in the vain hope that someday a random current in cyberspace will connect me with others who may think as I do. On that happy day (if it ever comes) I will no longer be a lone crackpot; instead I will a proud partisan of a fringe political group with a unique agenda. And then who knows... anything may happen.
So what are these strange and seditious views which I harbor? I list the key points plainly here on the "label" of this bottle so that you may easily decide for yourself. If the contents described below sound ridiculous you can quickly move to the next diary with only a few seconds of your precious time wasted. But if perchance these ideas sound less than totally crazy then you may wish (at your leisure) to pop the cork and peruse a fuller exposition by following the below link. If I can persuade you fully, perhaps you'll even join me on my quest.
1. Democratic Politics is an oxymoron. It is the fundamental nature of political behavior to foster and exacerbate social divisions, not lessen them. Universal suffrage may be preferable to limited suffrage but Democratic equality in the polling place is no assurance of social or economic equality after the election. Voting may easily exist side by side with the most horrific inequality
2. Political Reform seeks to soften this contradiction by addressing the symptoms but it is an awkward compromise at best. A constitutional amendment protecting the ability to regulate campaign finance (the current cause celebre) is just such a compromise. To truly reform politics (to the extent of eliminating social and economic inequalities) we would have to transform politics beyond all recognition. The patient died but the operation was a success; this is the level of conflict between the mutually exclusive requirements of politics and social justice.
3. "Reform" worthy of the name requires a much deeper conversation. We must move beyond Enlightenment era concepts and and broaden our thinking to include Darwin as well. Viewed in the broad context of human evolutionary development, institutions that were appropriate in the 18th Century may well be viewed as hopelessly obsolete today Seen from this perspective contemporary notions of reform may seem woefully inadequate.
If you're prepared to entertain some highly unconventional ideas, the following link leads to a forty page essay/manifesto speculating on the evolutionary relationship between ecology, politics and and government. The first three sections are basically just a condemnation of our existing institutions so if I'm preaching to the choir you may, after reading the preface, reasonably skip ahead to the section labelled "Checks and Balances".
https://docs.google.com/...