loquitor:
first, i think you have a pretty curious notion of iran. i dont know where it comes from. maybe you talk with expats who left because they supported the shah's delightful regime politically? sounds like it. i hope this doesnt sound sarcastic because i dont mean it to be: i am genuinely confused about where you get your impression of iran from.
second, on this:
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But the basic pattern in the US is that it seems to do a pretty good job at self-correction. Give Madison and Hamilton their due.
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it seems to me that one of the main problems running through the present situation in the states is a breakdown in exactly that self-correction capability--which is and has been smooth-seeming mostly in retrospect, from a kind of hegelian vantagepoint (there he is again) such that dissonances get wiped away beneath the weight of a continuous distant historical narrative.
hamilton and madison were just people who did the best they could in a particular situation. they were neither more nor less than anyone else. they were no prophets, they were not ubermenschen. they outlined a system that has in the main worked ok (depending on your viewpoint) but about which nothing is guaranteed--nothing has been, nothing will be. i dont get the attribution of some heroic status to them. i really dont.