Back to American politics, Obama vs. Romney.
“3. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.
4. Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it.” – Sun Tzu
This applies very well to most situations, including political fights. The problem with Romney is that he is a businessman, he wants to lead the country as if it were an enterprise. There is nothing inherently bad about the plan as the things that make a business successful are the same things that make a country successful: happy employees and clients, motivation to contribute in the employer’s benefit, economic and political stability, innovation, you name it. The problem with it lies in the size – Romney wants to lead the United States, an enterprise the size and diversity never seen before. He would need very autonomous branch offices, even branch offices of branch offices, which would micromanage certain districts; he would need regional governments that have almost no limitations. Any constraints upon their operation decreases their effectiveness as every area is different, they should be governed differently. And then they have to be willing to work together, which is yet another big problem.
The difference between branch offices and local authorities is that the company’s head office is supposed to nurture the branch offices to make them as productive as possible. Since there is no play for power (or very little room for it), that is not a concern. In the case of local authorities is that the state has to limit them from growing out of hand. Anyone who becomes too influential will start hindering the free operation of the state.
“Half of them are your enemies and the other half are the kind that makes you prefer your enemies.” –YPM on regional governments
Regional governments are not like branch offices, you cannot appoint anyone you want to lead them. The governors are chosen by the people, and they fall into two very similar, yet violently conflicting parties. If each branch office has different aims, principles and ideals, managing the whole system from a central body becomes a fool’s quest. You would end up with a horrible case of Buridan’s donkey – instead of two stacks of hay you would have over fifty of them! And just one ass – the country – that is being drawn in every direction, never actually getting anywhere before dying.
“I mean just imagine if you put defence in the hands of local authorities. Give the local councils a hundred million each and ask them to defend themselves, we wouldn’t have to worry about the Russians, we’d have a civil war in three weeks!” – YPM
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