I live in a great megalopolis surrounded by millions of fellow creatures but my aberrant political opinions leave me completely and utterly isolated. I may as well be living 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, seemingly toxic opinions out 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. It's an exercise in futililty apparently, but it does help to pass the time.
So what are these strange and seditious views which I harbor? I list them 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 to peruse a fuller exposition by following the below link.
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
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 contradiction.
"Reform" worthy of the name requires a much deeper conversation. We must move beyond Enlightenment ideas 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 obsolete.
The following link leads to a forty page essay 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 am preaching to the choir you may reasonably skip ahead to the section labelled "Checks and Balances"
https://docs.google.com/...