Login
You're viewing the sfba.social public feed.

Replies

  • Chard Nelsonchardlee@dads.cool
    Aug 5, 2026, 4:39 PM

    @lauren I have been saying that for decades. Seeking that office is a clear sign of severe mental illness.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • wfkwfk@v.st
    Aug 5, 2026, 4:44 PM

    @lauren
    "The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
    To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
    To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
    HHGTTG

    💬 1🔄 5⭐ 6
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 2
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 1⭐ 2
  • Cadbury MooseCadbury_Moose@wandering.shop
    Aug 5, 2026, 6:00 PM

    @lauren

    There's also the Terry Pratchett variation (from "The Last Continent") where elected politicians in XXXX are taken straight to Jail. "Saves lots of time" according to the locals.

    3:O)>

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • C.W. Williams 🇺🇦 🌊🇨🇦🦑🇬TidalFlats@mastodon.coffee
    Aug 5, 2026, 6:11 PM

    @lauren
    Can't find the actual quote, but Arthur C. Clarke wrote in one of his novels ("Songs of Distant Earth"?) that the ideal President would be someone who absolutely did not want the job. They would do their level best at it in order to get time off for good behavior.

    💬 2🔄 1⭐ 4
  • Joe McTeejmctee@mastodon.social
    Aug 5, 2026, 6:36 PM

    @TidalFlats @lauren

    I believe it was Clarke’s Imperial Earth novel where he proposed this.

    “We want a President who has to be carried screaming and kicking into the White House - but will then do the best job he possibly can, so that he’ll get time off for good behavior.”

    Lots of good stuff in that book, including raising the Titanic!

    💬 1🔄 1⭐ 1
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • 💬 1🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • davecb 🇨🇦davecb@hachyderm.io
    Aug 5, 2026, 6:23 PM

    @lauren The Greeks and Romans used to use "sortition" (not sortation)

    You put your hand in the amphora and pulled out a tile, to discover that you were now the Chief Dogcatcher of Rome for a year.

    💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • davecb 🇨🇦davecb@hachyderm.io
    Aug 5, 2026, 6:30 PM

    @lauren That sound like a joke, but it's actually structured so as to make a random choice between equally qualified candidates.

    It's used in disguise to this day. An independent advisory panel picks out a list of equally-qualified candidates for the Supreme Court. The Prime Minister chooses whoever he likes: they're all qualified.

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 1
  • 💬 1🔄 0⭐ 1
  • notsoloudnotsoloud@expressional.social
    Aug 5, 2026, 7:39 PM

    @bhasic
    Yeah, so the people should go get the philosophers and force them to be kings.

    In practice that would end with people picking whatever psychopath were the best at acting out the average person's idea of a philosopher.

    Much like "good Christian" politicians in the US.
    @lauren

    💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0
  • Kermode 🇨🇦gemlog@friendface.kalum.ca
    Aug 6, 2026, 12:16 AM

    @peterbrown
    Reminds me of this book:

    “The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.
    To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
    To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
    ― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    @lauren

    💬 0🔄 1⭐ 0
  • 💬 0🔄 0⭐ 0