Great essay.
About a third of the way through it, I was already composing a response that would point out that the Tytler Calumny is sort of narrowly true, but that it’s not that the people as a whole vote themselves largesse from the public treasury, but that the wealthy and powerful few manipulate the system so that the people (or more precisely, the politicians who pretend to represent them) vote largesse to them. The end result - the destruction of democracy and ultimately of the nation itself - is essentially the same, but the process by which that happens is not.
Then Brin spent the rest of the article making essentially the same point.
On a related note, I quite like Brin’s novels, but didn’t know that he also writes political commentary.
Until I saw your comment, it didn’t dawn on me that they were one and the same. I also enjoyed several of his novels. :)
From 2012, so it might not hold up entirely. I think the rise of Trump and the further degradation of the rightwing may actually be a living counterpoint in progress.
Still, I admire his centrist optimism.
Yes, sadly he was quite prescient. I often think we’re in a time of transition/decay because of tech like AI & robotics. Sadly perfect conditions for fascism, which the right has so often transmuted into throughout history.
