Odd or Unusual words you like, but rarely get a chance to use.

[Jack]

miasma.

That one always reminds me of someone.

Here?? 

No, Sand from WP. Recalling he used the word in a poem, mental miasma was the phrase. It just stuck for some reason. Think he's dead now.

Seriously??  I liked Sand!   

He was awesome. It's an assumption, really. Last time looking at wp, he hadn't posted in a long while, and he was already in his 80's when I was there 10 years ago.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

Svengali

Reciprocity

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

Sortition: a system of government where representatives are chosen from the general population by lottery rather than being elected.

[Queen Victoria]

Sweep, mop, laundry, cooking, budget, etc.  Basically any grown-up word that involves work.

Yep.  I'm a slob.

[Lestat]

Lol ren, 'munted' is in use over here too, althoumgh it's got an entirely different meaning, meaning to be absolutely fucking  shitface wasted.

Possibly a hybriidization, as far as etymology goes, betweenj 'mashed' and 'cunted'. Mashed and cunted=munted.

Never knew you were a Lovecraft fangirl couldbe. Definitely am myself. And I'll cast my vote for 'eldritch' too.

[Yuri Bezmenov]

Sortition: a system of government where representatives are chosen from the general population by lottery rather than being elected.

 

I'm an advocate of this type of system myself.

It's the easiest way to get the money out of politics since a war chest of money won't be needed to be nominated for government positions.

In the modern world, it might be tricky to get to work properly though.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

Sortition: a system of government where representatives are chosen from the general population by lottery rather than being elected.

 

I'm an advocate of this type of system myself.

It's the easiest way to get the money out of politics since a war chest of money won't be needed to be nominated for government positions.

In the modern world, it might be tricky to get to work properly though.

I'm happy to agree with you on this one Pappy.

One of the problems with politics here is that if you are someone who stands on principle and if you are prepared to argue against your own party's position, the party will ensure that you don't even get nominated.

So the political system that we have acts as a very effective filter - it filters out personal integrity and honesty.

People who haven't already been corrupted by the party system are actually the sort of people we need in politics.

[odeon]

Agreed, in principle, but let's face it, most people wouldn't be suited for the job.

[Calandale]

At least they're not assured to be disqualified, by WANTING it.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

At least they're not assured to be disqualified, by WANTING it.

I don't think it's all that uncommon for good people to WANT to get involved in politics.

The problem is that good people, with principles that they are prepared to stand behind, are almost always filtered out or corrupted long before they get anywhere near a position where they can make positive change.

[odeon]

OTOH, people picked at random wouldn't know how to. We're fucked either way.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

OTOH, people picked at random wouldn't know how to. We're fucked either way.

I still think we're better off with people who don't know how to politician. (I invented a new verb)

Politics is too corrupt for professional politicians to do anything other than serve their true masters: the corporations, the mega wealthy, the media, the parties. They merely pay lip service to serving the people who vote for them.

[odeon]

OTOH, people picked at random wouldn't know how to. We're fucked either way.

I still think we're better off with people who don't know how to politician. (I invented a new verb)

Politics is too corrupt for professional politicians to do anything other than serve their true masters: the corporations, the mega wealthy, the media, the parties. They merely pay lip service to serving the people who vote for them.

As I said, we're fucked either way.

[Minister Of Silly Walks]

OTOH, people picked at random wouldn't know how to. We're fucked either way.

I still think we're better off with people who don't know how to politician. (I invented a new verb)

Politics is too corrupt for professional politicians to do anything other than serve their true masters: the corporations, the mega wealthy, the media, the parties. They merely pay lip service to serving the people who vote for them.

As I said, we're fucked either way.

I kind of agree, but most people are waking up to how corrupt the political system is. They elected a guy who was clearly morally bankrupt and incompetent for office, but he said he was gonna drain the swamp, so they preferred him over many politicians who were better qualified for the role.

Maybe some form of government that doesn't involve professional politicians is necessary.

Think about it this way. If you took 10 young people who wanted to be professional politicians. And then you ranked them according to several categories. You might rank them according to IQ, then you might rank them according to qualifications,  according to personal charm and charisma, according to self-confidence, according to looks, then you might rank them according to personal integrity.

You record these rankings and then come back in 10 years or 20 years and see which of those rankings is most predictive of a successful career in politics.

My guess would be that the personal integrity ranking would be the most successful predictor, those hopefuls with the least personal integrity would be more likely to be successful.

We have a self-adjusting political system that literally filters out people who actually want to make the world a better place.

Is a professional politician who knows how to get things done really better than a random citizen when the professional politician uses his or her knowledge of how to get things done to help corporations pay less tax, help CEOs feather their own nests, help billionaires and corporations get even richer by destroying the planet, and start pointless wars?

[Calandale]

You're more likely to get a decent ruler through divine-right inheritance than by choosing
from those who actively seek the role.

The random selection could be done decades in advance (say at birth) and start training
the ruling class to properly understand their function.