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A Strong Leader/ Dictator

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245

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    #32
    ch750536
    Registered Users Posts: 3,736 ✭✭✭ch750536


    What we have now:

    Bob wants power. Bob joins the Power4Me party. Bob knocks on doors in Lubtown promising to do a good job of representing the people of Lubtown. People of Lubtown vote & he gets power.

    Tim wants real power. Tim joined Power4Me party 10 years ago. Tim knocks on the doors of Power4Me people promising to do a good job of leading them. People of power vote & Tim gets the job.

    Tim then tells Bob how to vote. Bob votes that way regardless of whether the people he promised to represent are either involved or voice their thoughts otherwise.

    Solution: Representatives are meant to debate & represent. Their own opinion or even the opinion of their 'party Tim' is secondary to the opinion of those they are meant to be representing.

    Remove parties from politics. Everyone by definition has to be independent as they can only represent those people who live in their constituency.


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    #33
    th3 s1aught3r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,925 ✭✭✭th3 s1aught3r


    Hayte wrote: »
    Are you really asking? Lets look at some examples that historically didn't work out so well:

    Kim Jong Il/North Korea - Comparing the state to the high tech juggernaut this is South Korea is like watching an instructional video in how to FAIL.

    Pol Pot/Cambodia - Yeah, compulsory agrarian collectivism really worked good.

    Big Joe/Soviet Union - The 20th century definition of getting things done. Shame about the incalculable loss of life.

    You didnt answer the question though did you ?


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    #34
    bonerm
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,595 ✭✭✭bonerm


    PADMÉ: You really don't like politicians, do you?

    ANAKIN: I like two or three, but I'm not really sure about
    one of them. (smiling) I don't think the system works.

    PADMÉ: How would you have it work?

    ANAKIN: We need a system where the politicians sit down and
    discuss the problem, agree what's in the best interests of
    all the people, and then do it.

    PADMÉ: That is exactly what we do. The trouble is that
    people don't always agree. In fact, they hardly ever do.

    ANAKIN: Then they should be made to.

    PADMÉ: By whom? Who's going to make them?

    ANAKIN: I don't know. Someone.

    PADMÉ: You?

    ANAKIN: Of course not me.

    PADMÉ: But someone.

    ANAKIN: Someone wise.

    PADMÉ: That sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me.

    A mischievous little grin creeps across his face.

    ANAKIN: Well, if it works...
    WTF?

    I remember when Star Wars used to be a set of great movies. Before the dark times, before the prequels.....


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    #35
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    th3 s1aught3r wrote: »
    Cowen, Kenny, Gilmore
    We need a leader who will make the hard decisions that need to be made. None of these party leaders are capable of that imo, they are all too tied up in the public sector/unions and other self-serving organisations of the state. I dont want to see a potential leader of this nation talking to the people through the Late Late show to some over paid entertainer, a leader would be out talking to the people. Not arguing like children in the house of lies that is the Dail
    Our model of British parlimentary democracy is not working, maybe we need someone to reorganise our state, so the party politics are wiped from the landscape
    As soon as you say the word dictator people get all judgemental but as Anakin Skywalker said "if it works"

    has anyone pointed out that our democracy is nothing like the british model yet?

    and that star wars does not a political system make? those stormtroopers cant shoot for shít anyway. and who makes a death star that can be easily blown up with one missile? idiots. why would we want to be like them.

    therell be nothing but ewoks on the dole and selling their wares on the streets to furries.

    you'd be doing it for alderan reasons!


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    #36
    allanb49
    Registered Users Posts: 6,419 ✭✭✭allanb49


    sensibleken wrote: »

    you'd be doing it for alderan reasons!

    Genius good sir/madam,

    I tip my hat to thee


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    #37
    Hayte
    Registered Users Posts: 485 ✭✭Hayte


    th3 s1aught3r wrote: »
    You didnt answer the question though did you ?

    Fair enough.
    Would a dictator have done any more damage to the country than FF?

    This cannot really be answered because there are too many hypotheticals when asking 'would?'. However the capacity for an autocratic, authoritarian, super legal governing entity to trample the rights of its citizens is about as far reaching as it gets. You have no effective say in what your government does which some would argue isn't much different to what we have now but the big difference is that you have no legal recourse either if it does not coincide with the interests of the powerful.

    I wouldn't want a dictatorship. I'm not saying what we have now can be considered much else other than a law bound, elected tyranny (oligarchy to be more precise) but you don't get out of this hole by digging deeper.


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    #38
    th3 s1aught3r
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,925 ✭✭✭th3 s1aught3r


    De Dannan wrote: »
    The dictatorship of Cincinnatus in ancient Rome would be considered a successful one. He took power for a short time, defeated Rome's enemies, then famously returned to his plow, as the Roman dictatorship was supposed to work. He was a great hero of the Roman republic, and a model for George Washington when he was the first President of the United States.

    A good example.
    Sometimes someone has to take charge if your country is being destroyed. I regret now quoting Star Wars, its seems to have excited all the nerds here on AH !!


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    #39
    thebigbiffo
    Registered Users Posts: 2,941 ✭✭✭thebigbiffo


    seriously, with jabba the hut as health minister we're fairly close to star wars as it is


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    #40
    Amhran Nua
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭Amhran Nua


    ch750536 wrote: »
    Everyone by definition has to be independent as they can only represent those people who live in their constituency.
    So eh, if you have the local councils looking after local issues, and you have TDs looking after local issues, who exactly is looking after the national issues? Why with a situation like that you might end up with shockingly weak and unqualified leadership in a country that stumbles into disaster after disaster, if you can imagine such a thing.

    PS: no to dictatorships, its always some nimrod of a strongman that comes promising the sun, moon and stars, but ends up enriching him/herself while impoverishing the country.


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    #41
    The_Conductor
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 32,278 Mod ✭✭✭✭The_Conductor


    Forget about a dictatorship- there is precious little reason to even think about going down the military route, we simply have neither the manpower, nor the officer corps to take up the reins......

    Yes- the country doesn't work- but its more as a result of the mindset of the people, than purely the politicians fault.

    Parochial politics has always flourished here- and indeed was introduced by the Irish to the States- for better or for worse. Its always been the case that folk voted for their man in the Oireachtas, and expected their man (and it was inevitably a man) to bring whatever largess they could home to their constituency. How else did we get motorways bypassing little villages in Kerry South- and the most eye watering disbursements of Lottery funds in Donegal?

    Irish people have always been clanish- we fight amongst ourselves, and then we will gang up on our neighbours- and then the rest of the country will gang up on the Jackeens in Dublin.......

    Its not so much that we are incapable of governing ourselves- we are incapable of being governed. Its almost comical watching people protest about a hospital closure in the middle of no-where, when you consider that oncology services are being withdrawn from large swathes of the country (including a significant portion of Dublin).

    We have our priorities arseways, and can't seem to get it in our thick heads, that money doesn't grow on trees......

    Let the politicians continue 'as is', not because they are doing a good job- patently they are not, but because the Irish population deserve them......


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    #42
    Amhran Nua
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭Amhran Nua


    smccarrick wrote: »
    Its not so much that we are incapable of governing ourselves- we are incapable of being governed.
    What a pile of bollocks. Ireland is one of the very few countries with proportional representation that also use the single transferable vote. If we used the party list system like everyone else, you'd see a very different story.

    The only tyranny in the country is that of the parish pump, which is because TDs have to spend so much time polishing it in order to get re-elected, as a direct and sole result of the STV system.

    Enough with the half baked national characterisations already.


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    #43
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    th3 s1aught3r wrote: »
    A good example.
    Sometimes someone has to take charge if your country is being destroyed. I regret now quoting Star Wars, its seems to have excited all the nerds here on AH !!

    who then? do you want the job?

    We all know that if it came to a dictator taking power we would end up with Generalisimo Joe Duffy.


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    #44
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    sensibleken wrote: »
    who then? do you want the job?

    We all know that if it came to a dictator taking power we would end up with Generalisimo Joe Duffy.

    I'll have a go.


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    #45
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    k_mac wrote: »
    I'll have a go.

    sweet! that was easier than i thought.

    Can i be Grupenfuhrer of arts, culture and the Gaeltacht?


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    #46
    FreudianSlippers
    Registered Users Posts: 20,397 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    I'll do it. Let's elect me as Taoiseach... I'll pwn some politicians and fix this **** already.


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    #47
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    sensibleken wrote: »
    sweet! that was easier than i thought.

    Can i be Grupenfuhrer of arts, culture and the Gaeltacht?

    I plan to cut all those departments. This is a recession, not Mardi Gras.


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    #48
    Batiste
    Closed Accounts Posts: 32 ✭Batiste


    a dictator is something we don't need,you know they tried to push a bill through surrepticously by the dail for a dictatorship structured government and that was not so long ago!


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    #49
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    k_mac wrote: »
    I plan to cut all those departments. This is a recession, not Mardi Gras.

    fair enough. hows about off-licences. i can be in charge of those? we can all agree they need to open passed ten o'clock!


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    #50
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    sensibleken wrote: »
    fair enough. hows about off-licences. i can be in charge of those? we can all agree they need to open passed ten o'clock!

    24 hour drinking for all. But prison sentences for people who piss or vomit on my streets.


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    #51
    FreudianSlippers
    Registered Users Posts: 20,397 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    Batiste wrote: »
    a dictator is something we don't need,you know they tried to push a bill through surrepticously by the dail for a dictatorship structured government and that was not so long ago!
    OMG REALLY?!

    :rolleyes:


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    #52
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    k_mac wrote: »
    24 hour drinking for all. But prison sentences for people who piss or vomit on my streets.

    Hooray!

    psst i think oisin_T is eyeing up your job. want me to 'long knives' his ass?


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    #53
    FreudianSlippers
    Registered Users Posts: 20,397 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    k_mac wrote: »
    24 hour drinking for all. But prison sentences for people who piss or vomit on my streets.
    Or don't pick up their dog shít.



    I saw some guy let his dog **** right outside the Bar Council office on Church Street. lol. Just left it there and everyone was like :wtf:


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    #54
    FreudianSlippers
    Registered Users Posts: 20,397 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    sensibleken wrote: »
    Hooray!

    psst i think oisin_T is eyeing up your job. want me to 'long knives' his ass?
    I'll just be 2nd in charge then :P


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    #55
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    OisinT wrote: »
    I'll just be 2nd in charge then :P

    Excellent. You shall be in charge of the legalisation and taxation of prostitution and marijuana.


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    #56
    ch750536
    Registered Users Posts: 3,736 ✭✭✭ch750536


    Amhran Nua wrote: »
    So eh, if you have the local councils looking after local issues, and you have TDs looking after local issues, who exactly is looking after the national issues? Why with a situation like that you might end up with shockingly weak and unqualified leadership in a country that stumbles into disaster after disaster, if you can imagine such a thing.

    Don't know where you work but I find managers at strategic levels are good. 2 levels for the country may be where it is all going wrong tbh but you misread my issue.

    Point is that TD's are their to represent & debate, not to ignore completely. Somewhere there is a happy balance.


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    #57
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    Abortions for all!


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    #58
    MagicSean
    Closed Accounts Posts: 9,897 ✭✭✭MagicSean


    We can drink screw and smoke ourselves out of the recession.


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    #59
    FreudianSlippers
    Registered Users Posts: 20,397 ✭✭✭✭FreudianSlippers


    sensibleken wrote: »
    Abortions for all!
    I love abortions. I get two or three a month.


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    #60
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    k_mac wrote: »
    Excellent. You shall be in charge of the legalisation and taxation of prostitution and marijuana.

    we could tackle teen pregnancy by the promotion of propper hand job technique.


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    #61
    sensibleken
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,650 ✭✭✭sensibleken


    by the way. has anyone seen the tags on this thread. :D


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