Might makes Right
(Fair warning -I am a bog amatuer trying to tackle an intellectual point, intellectual type semantic criticism will not be welcomed.)
A Pragmatists Argument for the Objectivity of Morals.
I absolutely believe in the statement "might make right", in fact if you put a gun to my head and ask me to say that a set of objective morals are most important in determining a course of action I will not hesitate to agree. Aside from the obvious practical benefits in complying, it is also a consistent stance for a pragmatist to take.
A society forms of its members so that they can derive mutual benefit from co-operation. The mutual benefit maybe anything, but each society benefits from the acquisition of power. Power is the dynamic for the interaction of societies. Power can manifest in the ability to conquer competitors or nature.
Thus the morals of a society should be geared to the production of maximum power for that society. If they are not then the society will become subservient to a more powerful society. As the objective is known and the morals of society are there to fufill that objective - it can be seen that morals are objective. Objective power orientated morals of a society create the might to make and enforce the rule of a moral society.
It is in this way that capitalism has become so successful, it has wealth as the best invented (yet) tool of measuring power. And a capitalist society gears itself to the creation of greater wealth.
Equally useful is the function of democracy. The ultimate (or most perfect) methods of obtaining societal power are unkown beyond the scope of human expertise and the position of the society is changeable. Thus it is important that morals and laws and rulers are able to be changed. If any of these are considered beyond reproach, then when a new position is reached it is more difficult to effect change and thus the old morals which are of decreasing value are maintained to the detriment of society. Democracy allows continual change to be the norm, which is good because it is the norm.
Smartest Electorate in New Zealand
Maori voters who voted Maori Party for electorate and Labour for party are the smartest voters of all us Kiwis. They have maximised their voting power and helped ensure that New Zealand is now governed by Labour with support from the Maori Party. This advantage takes the form of the overhang MP.
NZ has a Mixed Member Proportional (
MMP) representative form of government,
check it out. Basically we have a one chamber parliament where everybody gets two votes, a party vote and an electorate vote. In addition to this we have a race based set of Maori seats that are governed by the same rules, but consist only of Maori race voters who have
consistently voted Labour (most of the last 70 years or so). These Maori seats are a
separate, but equal part of the electoral system.
The first 120 seats are determined by the proportion of the party vote that a party obtains. In the last election the less intelligent voters (of which I am admittedly one) were captured by stupid parties that contested both the party vote and electoral vote. Within the smarter Maori electorates tens of thousands of more intelligent voters ticked Labour for their party vote. The proportionality of the first 120 seats was determined by the proportion of non-Maori and Maori voters party votes.
Beyond the 120 seats of the party proportional parliament exist potential electorate only seats that are not related to the proportionality, these are termed "overhang" seats. These are reserved for parties that have smart,
intelligent voters who vote for them only as electorate MPs. In the previous parliament only the Maori Party did this. The votes of these Maori voters were 57%* more important in determining the government than other New Zealanders**. There were 69 electoral seats in the previous
2005 elections (there will be 70 in the next elections). The potential power of intelligent voters grows larger.
* (69 potential seats / 120 proportional seats) x 100%
** People of Epsom who voted for Rodney Hide came second in the intelligence stakes, everybody else a distant third (and any Maori who voted Maori Party with party vote who also lean towards Labour were utter fools - do not do it again).
Inspired by
kiwiblog.
