Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00449)

Replying to Tom

[Eldon]
>>that the most important issue in theosophical politics is that, since
>>power so easily corrupts, no one has too much power, preferring as
>>decentralized and limited a government as possible.
[Tom]
>How centralized a government should be depends on the size of the society.
>A family of four should be highly centralized and cooperative, since
>organization of such a small number of people is relatively easy.  The
>costs of organizing a nation of tens of millions of people are
>proportionally greater, and so it should be more decentralized and
>competitive.

If we include other planes of existence in with the physical, the costs of
limited perspective, human concern and imagination, can be enormous,
whatever point of the political spectrum a government is on. The problem is
that governments seem to focus on economic cost first, and other kinds a
rather poor second. And they don't even seem to have a very far-ranging view
of financial cost.

As for domination - does it have more place in private life than in government?

Pyramidal heirarchies and star-shaped networks are giving way to flatter
structures and multi-connected networks in business. They seem to be slower
to catch on in government. But then, we need to remember how much some
people like power for their own limited perspectives.

Murray