That sounds like an argument against democracy.

It's not difficult to argue against democracy, but it's very difficult to find an alternative that isn't much worse.

stouset 2 years ago | parent | prev [-]

I genuinely don’t follow.

> Hoping for and/or expecting societal change through mass application of willpower

This sounds like the same mechanism for democracy, educating a broad populace and hoping they make the right (best?) choices.

	▲	stouset 2 years ago \| parent [-]
		Educating a person is materially different from getting them to act against their incentives. Doing so with a population is even more so. The average American is overweight and doesn’t exercise. They are almost certainly aware they need to reduce their calorie intake and spend at least a couple of hours a week engaging in physical activity. Knowing you ought to change you behavior and actually doing it are completely different issues. I actually happen to think that both are basically losing battles these days, but the underlying reasons aren’t the same.