7-383
Other J idea: Judgement (kind of similar)
Summary: God/Aristotle (same dif) says you need an Emperor
Bonus: (Why don't I ever embed these?) My preferred form of world government:
Commentary: Interestingly, after the other day's reading, Dante thinks it's pointless to try to teach people to be happy, since Aristotle already did it perfectly (Plutarch lived ~500 years after Aristotle).
Dante is very convinced that all civilizations should share the same main goal(s). This seems pretty questionable to me, but I was prepared to let him argue it out. He says that goal (borrowed from Aristotle) is "the ability to grow in intelligence." I certainly think that's a good goal (gestures towards blog), but I don't know that it's the ultimate end all-be-all of all civilization. If anything, it seems more like a goal that could be used to lead to other goals (better health, happiness, etc.) It might be a useful "metagoal" for accomplishing these things, but making it the prime-goal feels backwards to me.
His best route to this goal is universal peace. That seems reasonable enough. I guess you can make the "we discovered a lot of useful stuff via war" argument, but I think it's a stretch to say war is necessary (or even the most efficient) way to advance knowledge.
This is his basic reasoning for the need for world government. And, to be very clear, this is explicitly a top down "monarch or emperor" government. No world democratic council shenanigans here. (There are legislators in there somewhere, though.) State, local, etc. governments do remain intact, they just get very little say in things that aren't directly under them.
There's a lot of "obviously this is true" or "just read THE PHILOSOPHER (Aristotle)" across this whole essay, and not a lot of actual proving. (In addition to a bunch of "God wants world government.)
As someone who is broadly supportive of a more active world (or at least super-national) government, this essay is, if anything, making me support it less. He never really proves anything, just goes "Obviously a universal government will be the most just/freeing/etc. and then appeals to "purity"(mixing governments makes the impure!) and God. Broadly, I support what I call "hourglass government". Power should be concentrated locally (as the most directly affected by issues) and at the highest possible level (as the one with the broadest base of experience and resources) everything in between is just middle management to connect the two and should be minimized.
Rating: 1/5. I'm not offended, it's just bad. Dante is a proto-facist?
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