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Name:
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Talullahhound
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Subject:
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For the Record
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Date:
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10/15/2009 9:50:31 AM
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I have never said that I thought socialism was inevitable. All I said that as a INTELLECTUAL EXERCISE it is interesting to wonder if that will be the evolution of democracy. I gather that no one here ever just takes an idea and rolls it around in their brain just to see where it goes. There have been many models developed about the evolution from dictatorship to democracy, many of which I read when I worked with African programs. Also many models and ideas about how a transition to democracy might work and what might drive it. So I find it INTELLECTUALLY interesting to think about an evolution from democracy and what might drive it.
I think we are living in interesting times. Now that I am retired, I have plenty of time to think about a lot of different things. The evolution of our society and government is one of the things I like to think about. What comes next? How will it happen? Who will drive it?
Hodja, I can't imagine why you would think that just because I worked in the Pentagon, that I have a know it all attitude. In fact, having spent all that time in government, the only thing I'm convinced is that how little we know or understand. But, you might be interested to know, that when I worked in the field, I used to think that you had to have some insight to be working in the Pentagon and making policy decisions. Once I was there, I realized that no, that isn't the case. The further you are from the problem, the less you understand about it. I could put pen to paper, write a policy that people in the building thought was terrific, and only have it really screw things up where the rubber meets the road. In fact, I was something of an anomoly among the civilians I worked with, because I had worked in the field. One of my bosses was a 'true believer" that our most important job was to hand down "concise" policy to the field. Occassionally, when the devil possessed me, I used to let him know that the fact was the people in the field didn't care much about policy and might not even read it, unless they were trying to figure out how to get around it. Made him mad as h*ll.
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