Gustible - under the rubric of [$_SELF]

I strongly believe that democracy is not the optimum way of choosing a government. No – I do not have a viable alternative, but the evidence suggests that there should be a better way of determining who is fit to govern.

[Read more →]

Ever since, I have imagined that I would live forever. One day the technology would arrive to let me go far far beyond three score and whatever. One day I would not be mortal, one day I will hold the universe in the palm of my virtual hand.

[Read more →]

Another perspective on the September 2008 financial crisis: we have been utterly swindled. Not for the first time.

[Read more →]

Why this website is called gustible. Some notes on Cordwainer Smith. A brief suggestion for alternative reading in the search of a replacement for democracy. All in a single post!

[Read more →]

Lindy and I were invited to dinner recently. We had a great evening – great food and company. But we broke one cardinal rule … we got distracted into discussing politics.
Normally this would not be a problem. I expect, especially in the South African context, that discussing politics would be a fairly heated and even [...]

[Read more →]

Since I was very young, I have always understood democracy to be “good” – and other forms of government to be “bad”, or “unfair”, or “pre-judiced” – this even though I grew up in the highly pre-judiced, unbalanced, and un-democratic world of Apartheid South Africa.
So – democracy then: it seems as if though the word [...]

[Read more →]

I wonder about democracy, about the will of the people. Today it is virtually sacrilege (at least in the West, and also in large parts of the East) to question the validity of democracy as a governmental system. (I should say – Democracy, capitalised).
Democracy is built on the idea that every person who is [...]

[Read more →]