Dustman says: "We must not get bogged down with this Right/wrong concept stopping us doing what must be done to preserve the longevity of our species."Ummm.. why are you assuming that "the longevity of our species" has some special value to the universe when in fact it does not? The universe cares as much about our species as it does about right and wrong. The same line of irrationally-based logic that dictates that we must be preserved is the same basis for the idea that there is such a thing as right/wrong.
You cannot have one without the other, and since you value the former, you must logically extend to value the latter.
As for the idea that 2/3 of the population must be killed off to preserve the species, where exactly do you come up with this number? I've heard plenty of other estimates, including one that says Earth could support up to 50 billion people. Are we just to assume that the guesstimate you quote is true and murder 4 billion people, just in case it is?
Oh, and the US is not a democracy, it's a representative republic. Big difference.
As far as the best form of government to have, they all suck, but they are better than the alternative of anarchy. Humans are the reason that governments are necessary. And don't get all noble about how natural selection has somehow granted us with some mystical intrinsic greatness. Remember that we are all the progeny of the cavemen who beat the shit out of everyone else and wanted to fuck all the time. Oh, how proud we must all be...
All ideals of governments are destroyed in the face of human nature. A good rule of thumb is that any system which proposes to eliminate human suffering is going to suck. Being pragmatic is the only way to reign in idealism and come up with a good solution. Personally, the best I've seen as of yet is the one they have in Starship Troopers. If you guarantee that every citizen has had to earn their rights, you get a much better chance that they will give a shit and not piss it all away as we Americans are so fond of doing.
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