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From: mwm@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer)
Newsgroups: net.politics.theory
Subject: Re: Slippery slope nightmares
Message-ID: <1019@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 17-Jul-85 18:34:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbtopaz.1019
Posted: Wed Jul 17 18:34:12 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 18-Jul-85 20:22:19 EDT
References: <991@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> <245@ubvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: mwm@ucbtopaz.UUCP (Mike (I'll be mellow when I'm dead) Meyer)
Organization: Missionaria Phonibalonica
Lines: 39

In article <245@ubvax.UUCP> tonyw@ubvax.UUCP (Tony Wuersch) writes:
>Oh sure there's a slippery slope for anyone who wants to pass prescriptive
>laws.  Maybe their lust for more prescriptive laws (politicians as
>capitalists, I guess) will lead to a tightening noose which would
>someday equal dictatorship.
>
>It's never happened (maybe in Switzerland? :-)).  Dictatorships are
>established not by politicians following slippery slopes, but rather
>by coups in times of extreme crisis.  Dictators come as saviors,
>not as well-meaning limited liberal politicians.  The kind of
>dictatorship that mike fears has never happened (although again,
>Switzerland ... [remember the movie "Bread and Chocolate"?] :-))

Coups at times of extreme crisis? You mean like the election that Hitler
won?

It isn't the liberal politicians that scare me; it isn't even the
socialist in general. It's the kind of power they want to give to the
state; even if they hide it in the guise of "will of the majority."

>This slippery slope of one law leading to a cascade leading to
>dictatorship is a silly nightmare.  We should reassure people who
>have these nightmares that the world is not so gloomy.

It isn't the laws per se. *It's the power.*  Once that kind of power is
given over to the government, it can be used by anyone who can gain
control of the government.

>Pragmatic people live on slippery slopes all the time.  They just
>carve out horizontal niches for themselves and maybe put up some
>barriers against avalanches.

Maybe you would like to tackle my as yet unanswered challenge, then. Can
you describe a system where the government can't pass nearly arbitrary
laws, given enough time? [Don't jump at the US constitution; it has been
amended three times to pass laws that would have been "unconstitutional"
before the amendment.]