Democracy is Chaotic - when it is done right.

[Kirkhill]

Media Contempt for Political Deliberation
But passage of a $1.7 trillion spending bill no one has read is seen as wondrous for democracy.

Media Contempt for Political Deliberation - The American Spectator | USA News and PoliticsThe American Spectator | USA News and Politics

The House of Representatives’ struggle to elect a speaker has been repeatedly defined as “chaotic” by mainstream media outlets. Apparently, deliberation and debate are signs of disorder and are not to be desired in our society. While the phrase “threat...

spectator.org

The House of Representatives’ struggle to elect a speaker has been repeatedly defined as “chaotic” by mainstream media outlets. Apparently, deliberation and debate are signs of disorder and are not to be desired in our society. While the phrase “threat to our democracy” has become increasingly trite due to its ubiquity in the news, media members who frequently employ it are often blind to their own hypocrisy, which is best illustrated by their apparent contempt for political deliberation. Although deliberation and debate are key components of our nation’s form of government, many journalists seem to want our government to take action quickly and often but are less concerned with that action’s quality or the process that gives rise to it.

Journalists often assess the “productivity” of Congress by tallying how many laws our legislative body passes. In early December, David Boaz of the Cato Institute argued that this is an extremely poor way to evaluate Congress. He’s right

While legitimate debate about who should be the Speaker of the House has been negatively labeled as “chaotic,” there was very little concern raised in the media over the frenetic process that led to the omnibus spending package at the end of 2022. The $1.7 trillion package, which totaled over 4,000 pages of text, was released in the middle of the night just days before it was to be voted on.

There has also been relative silence about the lack of debate allowed in the House of Representatives over the past six years. As former Michigan Representative Justin Amash occasionally points out on Twitter, there have been a grand total of 0 votes allowed on floor-offered amendments in the House of Representatives since the end of 2016. When our nation’s law-making body is micromanged from the top down and precluded from considering amendments to proposed bills, our elected leaders are not engaging in a deliberative process. More bills may be passed with greater haste, but too much power resides in a small number of political leaders.

The article is American but the sentiments apply to Canada as well. Parliament, in Canada, is not a deliberative chamber. The PMO strives for efficiency in the delivery of deliverables. It gives classes in deliverability.

PMO - Project Manager's Office?

The bureaucrats, technocrats and apparatchiks of the world, in the Civil Services and in the apparatchik's paradise known as the EU, aspire to efficiency. The chaos of parliament is anathema to them and should be avoided at all cost. That ultimately is why they variously sneer at, laugh at and detest Britain's system.

The tale of Brexit, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Covid, Northern Ireland, Ukraine and JEF is entirely too complex and chaotic for their liking. The unpredictability is chaotic. They see the feature as a bug.

So does the Trudeau faction, in my opinion.

The worst of all solutions except the alternatives.

 

[Brad Sallows]

If it happens on the legislature floor, it's "chaotic" and the nation is "ungovernable". If approximately the same thing happens beforehand in the backrooms, the vapid nitwits who write news copy don't know and don't care.

The only foolish thing about the recent example is that by taking it to the legislature floor, the party with only a narrow majority risked allowing the minority party to make the choice.

 

[Kirkhill]

I kind of like the idea of "parliament" modelling a "barney", people passionately fighting their corners, then finding a solution and heading to the bars only to do it all again tomorrow.

Fight clean and fair. And know that it doesn't have to be personal.

 

[Kirkhill]

Another article conforming to my biases.

Notably, what has unnerved so many in Washington is that this speakership debate was not just largely public but also unscripted. It was an actual deliberation, conducted in front of the American people. While repellent to many, it just might be something that voters could get accustomed to.

The 55th Speaker: Kevin McCarthy is no Nancy Pelosi — and that’s a good thing

Many Republicans did not want the Pelosi model of an all-powerful speaker.

thehill.com

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I've always liked this one. Seems fitting right now.​

​

​

​

Democracy​

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.

From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.

It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.

From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.

It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!

It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on ...

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up
this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
https://lyricstranslate.com

 

[daftandbarmy]

'Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.'

W.S. Churchill

 

[Kirkhill]

Based on this information I'd suggest that we are in a crisis of the good ol', historic, 'Good vs. Evil' type:

I struggle with the good and the evil designations these days

an establishment coup,

..the world’s omnipotent reserve managers have not lost confidence in this country.

Nor has the Truss mini-Budget done lasting damage to British economic credibility as many feared. What it told the world is that the institutional system can act with speed and ruthless efficiency in dealing with a wayward government.

The Bank of England won plaudits from global peers for putting out a dangerous brush-fire, while at the same time refusing to accommodate fiscal adventurism. The Treasury and the Office for Budget Responsibility emerged stronger.

This cathartic episode may have been an establishment coup...

Sez Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

It is a very long time since I felt so optimistic about Britain’s economic future

Our prime minister is quietly filling in the blank pages of the UK’s post-EU playbook

www.telegraph.co.uk

I am thrilled to no end that Ambrose is optimistic. I fear he might be in the minority in cheering the ability of the money men to topple duly elected governments that get out of line and do the popular things.

If you want to know why truck horns were blaring in Bytown, there you have your answer.

For additional proof you might want to look at

There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans. The pact was formalized in a terse, little-noticed joint statement of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO published on Election Day. Both sides would come to see it as a sort of implicit bargain–inspired by the summer’s massive, sometimes destructive racial-justice protests–in which the forces of labor came together with the forces of capital to keep the peace and oppose Trump’s assault on democracy.

This is the clearest statement of Corporatism in Action since the Corporatist agenda was defined in 1891.

The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election

For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions

time.com

Rerum Novarum (May 15, 1891) | LEO XIII

Encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII, 15 May 1891

www.vatican.va

And if you want to know where we go from here you might want to consider this statement of how the authoritarian agenda manages occasional defeats like having their guardians run away and leave them exposed to the popular masses. Italy surrendered to the Allies in September 1943. Rome was occupied by liberal democrats on June 6 1944. The Vatican had been relying on Mussolini to maintain it position as advisor to authoritarians and corporatists since 1929. Along with Franco, Salazar and others like Peron.

In December 1944, the Vatican issued this

Radio message "Benignitas et humanitas" for Christmas (December 24, 1944) | PIUS XII

Radio message Benignitas et humanitas for Christmas, addressed to the People of the Entire World on the Subject of Democracy and a Lasting Peace, December 24, 1944

www.vatican.va

Major sub-head.

The Problem of Democracy

As D&B's democracy map at the head of the page shows, the Vatican assured its followers that there were many types of "Democracy" including Democracy for The Real People of Real Nations led by proper Elites. The popular masses weren't Real People and they can be ignored (if they can't be shepherded).

The solution was for the newly forming institutions, like the United Nations and new national parliaments to be seized by the proper Elites. And for new supra-national organizations to be created. The Authoritarian version of the "Long March Through The Institutions"

And thus, the modern map of "Democracies".

And the masses increasingly ignoring the ballot box and blowing truck horns in frustration.




And it doesn't matter a tuppeny toss about which church you go to, or whether your God is Allah or the IPCC, it is all about Elites and Masses.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The "Democracy Index" isn't a very good measure. US voters are asked to chime in regularly and frequently on long lists of elected positions and issues - more than any other country I can think of, subject to correction - but apparently the US is a "flawed democracy". (Reveals a flawed methodology/situated estimate - GIGO.) An obvious consequence is that democracy in the US is likely to be chaotic.

 

[Kirkhill]

Education - educating all women, giving them equal rights, opportunities and realising them as proper 100% citizens of a society, those are the reasons for a society to have less children.

1950	"Education? Not too much! Our ancestors bequeathed us a heritage of poverty and ignorance and it would be tantamount to betrayal to educate our people" (translation).
1950	These words were spoken by Antoine Rivard, lawyer, Union nationale MLA and Solicitor General of Quebec from 1950 to 1960
1950	His leader, Maurice Duplessis, also had a strange concept of "education."
1950	He "likened it to alcohol", and "some people can't hold their liquor" (translation).
1950	For years, these two men and other Union nationale MLAs declared that Quebec had the best education system in the world.

The Creation of the Ministry of Education or the Democratization of Education - The Beginning of a New Era

The creation of the Ministry of Education by Minister Paul Gérin-Lajoie led to a marked improvement in the level of instruction of Quebecers.

www.larevolutiontranquille.ca

The Best Education System in the World circa 1962

1962	54% of Quebec adults aged 25 had no education beyond the sixth grade
1962	Teaching staff – comprised primarily of religious community members
1961	Black Americans aged 25 to 29 averaged an additional year of schooling compared to French Canadians of the same age group.
1960	Half of youths aged 15 to 19 no longer attended school.
1960	This generation mirrored earlier generations
1939	9 Public Libraries in Quebec for French Quebecers
1939	17 Public Libraries in Quebec for English Quebecers

The Alternative

1939	460 Public Libraries in Ontario
1883	Carnegie opens his first library at Dunfermline - the first of 2509
1883	Carnegie Libraries - Opened by Carnegie in Dunfermline - 29 August
1850	UK Public Library Act

1796	The Andersonian Library founded concurrently with the Institution - 2000 volumes from Anderson's personal collection
1756	Wanlockhead Miner's Library established as a subscription library - Scotland's second - established in the Lead Hills
1741	Leadhills working class subscription library opens
1731	Benjamin Franklin's Philadelphia Library
1725	Author Allan Ramsay opens a circulating library in Edinburgh

The Mechanics Institutes - a key element in democratizing education - it created technical colleges instead of seminaries

1775	Boulton and Watt go into partnership selling steam engines
1796	The Birmingham Brotherly Society was founded in 1796 by local mechanics to additional mechanics - civil and mechanical engineers
1796	The demand for mechanics was driven by the success of the Boulton-Watt steam engines of Birmingham - designed by James Watt, late of the University of Glasgow.
1796	Anderson’s Institute of Glasgow was the first technical college to provide scientific instruction with particular reference to the practical application of scientific ideas.
1796	It was the first in the world to provide systematic evening classes in science and its application
1796	It was the first to admit women unreservedly on the same terms as men
1799	The parish schools of Saltcoats, Ayrshire offered arithmetic for 5/- per quarter, bookkeeping at 10/6 and navigation at one guinea.
1799	Ardrossan had been offering geometry, trigonometry and navigation since the 1740s and Ayr geography and navigation since 1728
1806	The London Institution was an educational institution making scientific education widely available in the capital to people such as the Dissenters who adhered to non-orthodox religious beliefs and were consequently barred from attending Oxford University or Cambridge University
1821	The Edinburgh School of Arts formed as the first of the Mechanics Institutes
1821	By the 1850s there were some 700 Mechanics Instiutes across the UK and overseas and by 1900 there were 9000 all around the world.
1821	Its purpose was to "address societal needs by incorporating fundamental scientific thinking and research into engineering solutions"
1821	Its first lecture was on chemistry, and within a month it was subscribed to by 452 men who each paid a quarterly subscription fee.
1821	These new institutions gave classes, and included libraries, and apparatus to be used for experiments and technical education.

Canada - The Rebellions, Strachan, McGill and Ryerson

1807	Upper Canada's Grammar School Act of 1807 provided the first public funds for schools in what would become Ontario. 8 schools were opened.
1807	The Lower Canada District Public Schools Act of 1807, showed the government's willingness to support the costs of education and even the salary of a schoolmaster. This was an important first step in the creation of nondenominational schools.
1816	The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning (RIAL) was authorized to operate two new Royal Grammar Schools, in Quebec City and in Montreal. This was a turning point for public education in Lower Canada as the schools were created by legislation, the District Public Schools Act of 1807, which showed the government's willingness to support the costs of education and even the salary of a schoolmaster. This was an important first step in the creation of nondenominational schools. When James McGill died in 1813 his bequest was administered by the RIAL. Of the original two Royal Grammar Schools, in 1846 one closed and the other merged with the High School of Montreal. By the mid-19th century the RIAL had lost control of the other eighty-two grammar schools it had administered.[44] However, in 1853 it took over the High School of Montreal from the school's board of directors and continued to operate it until 1870.[45][46] Thereafter, its sole remaining purpose was to administer the McGill bequest on behalf of the private college. The RIAL continues to exist today; it is the corporate identity that runs the university and its various constituent bodies, including the former Macdonald College (now Macdonald Campus), the Montreal Neurological Institute, and the Royal Victoria College (the former women's college turned residence). Since the revised Royal Charter of 1852, The Trustees of the RIAL are the Board of Governors of McGill University.
1821	McGill College received a royal charter from King George IV. The Charter provided the College should be deemed and taken as a University, with the power of conferring degrees
1823	Law Officers of the Crown determined that both the Church of Scotland and the Church of England were entitled to a share of the Upper Canada Clergy Reserves
1826	Sermons from John Strachan, Anglican Archdeacon of York, Upper Canada, were published asserting that the Anglican church was, by law, the established church of Upper Canada. Methodists were singled out as American and therefore disloyal. Money was requested of the crown to allow the Anglican church to maintain ties to Great Britain. As Ryerson was the son of a Loyalist, this was an abomination.[3] He emerged as Episcopal Methodism's most articulate defender in the public sphere by publishing articles (at first anonymously) and later books that argued against the views of Methodism's chief rival John Strachan and other members of the powerful Family Compact.
1826	Methodist Ryerson, Loyalist, opposes Strachan over Clergy Reserves - claims dissenters have as much right to them as Anglicans
1826	Strachan claims Methodists are Yankee radicals and have no claim on the Clergy Reserves or to be in Canada
1829	Ryerson was also elected (by one vote) to serve as the founding editor of Canadian Methodism's weekly denominational newspaper, the Christian Guardian, established in York, Upper Canada, in 1829 and which was also Canada's first religious newspaper.[4] Ryerson used the paper to argue for the rights of Methodists in the province and, later, to help convince rank-and-file Methodists that a merger with British Wesleyans (effected in 1833[5]) was in their best interest. Ryerson was castigated by the reformist press at that time for apparently abandoning the cause of reform and becoming, at least as far as they were concerned, a Tory.
1832	The Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada passed legislation in 1832 providing for all income arising from the estates to be segregated from other Crown property and dedicated for educational purposes.
1836	Bishop’s University can trace its roots back to 1836 when Bishop's College School, a “Grammar School in connection with the College,” was founded as the Lennoxville Classical School. The University section, Bishop's College was established by Bishop George Jehoshaphat Mountain on December 9, 1843, in Lennoxville, Quebec, for the education of members of the Church of England and erected into a university in 1853.[6] The school was founded by Bishop Mountain, the third Anglican bishop of Quebec, as a liberal arts college
1837	Canadian Rebellions
1838	Canadian Rebellions
1838	Acadia began as an extension of Horton Academy (1828), which was founded in Horton, Nova Scotia, by Baptists from Nova Scotia and Queen's College (1838).[10] The college was later named Acadia College.[11] Acadia University, established at Wolfville, Nova Scotia in 1838 has a strong Baptist religious affiliation. It was designed to prepare men for the ministry and to supply education for lay members
1838	Ryerson assumes the editorship in 1835 of Canadian Methodism's weekly denominational newspaper, the Christian Guardian, established in York, Upper Canada, in 1829 and which was also Canada's first religious newspaper. again at his brother John's urging from 1838 to 1840
1840	Clergy Reserves in Canada Act 1840
1841	Queen's University Kingston opens as a Presbyterian College
1843	Strachan creates his Anglican university at King's College - chartered in 1827
1843	Mount Allison University is a secular (but United Church-affiliated) primarily undergraduate liberal arts university, established at Sackville, New Brunswick on January 19, 1843. The university was named after Charles Frederick Allison, in honour of his gift of land and money.[8] Its origins were steeped in the Methodist faith and it was designed to prepare men for the ministry and to supply education for lay members.[9] The university was chartered on April 14, 1849.
1844	Egerton Ryerson took over as Chief Superintendent 2500 Common (elementary) Schools in Upper Canada
1846	Ryerson lobbies for Free Education in Upper Canada for all, including Aboriginals - Origin of the Residential System

Universal Education

1870	Gladstone passes the Elementary Education Act funding Free Education
1872	Scotland makes education compulsory and centrally funds local schools
1875	Government of Quebec abolishes the Ministry of Education

Edit: I mentioned I had been taking some time digging into my history studies.

As I was doing this my mind was going back 50 years to Mr Ken Armstrong of the History Department at Thomas A Stewart Secondary School in Peterborough. He made more of an impression than either one of us thought at the time.

 

[daftandbarmy]

The "Democracy Index" isn't a very good measure. US voters are asked to chime in regularly and frequently on long lists of elected positions and issues - more than any other country I can think of, subject to correction - but apparently the US is a "flawed democracy". (Reveals a flawed methodology/situated estimate - GIGO.) An obvious consequence is that democracy in the US is likely to be chaotic.

Then there's the whole 'insurrection' thing....

 

[Brad Sallows]

Then there's the whole 'insurrection' thing....

Unruly citizens aren't a mark against democratic institutions. Somehow the system manages to resolve close elections using the rules set in advance, and it passes unnoticed by the "democracy in peril" hand-wringers. The usual processes went on in spite of protestors, not because of them.

 

[FJAG]

Until this happens

And then this

And then all bets are off.

Yup. I went there.

Stop apologizing for morons who are easily swayed by unscrupulous megalomaniacs.

There's a very thin line between a strong democracy and one that just dodged a bullet and frankly it's a line held by only a handful of people. A few dozen in the wrong place at that time could easily have made a disastrous difference. Where would that democracy have been on the 6th if Pence had sided with Trump and walked out of the Capitol and not finished the process?

 

[Brad Sallows]

The US has managed to hold onto its democratic institutions a lot better than many other countries over the same period. If it actually fails, critics will have a point. Until then, "anti-democracy/fascism is always descending on America but landing elsewhere" remains the rule, and safety concerns about imminent Hitlerization are mere hysteria. Other countries with meek citizens are not to be admired; all it suggests to me is that they never outgrew whatever kind of ruling system they used to have.

 

[Kirkhill]

Until this happens

And then this

And then all bets are off.

Yup. I went there.

Stop apologizing for morons who are easily swayed by unscrupulous megalomaniacs.

There's a very thin line between a strong democracy and one that just dodged a bullet and frankly it's a line held by only a handful of people. A few dozen in the wrong place at that time could easily have made a disastrous difference. Where would that democracy have been on the 6th if Pence had sided with Trump and walked out of the Capitol and not finished the process?

Stop fearing the worst of people just because you had a bad experience.

Not every crack in the sidewalk hides a sinkhole.

Edit: Some authoritarians proclaim themselves fascists. Others are Communists, Progressives, Presbyterians or Anglicans. A pox on all authoritarian houses.

If the choice is between Authoritarian Rigidity or anarchy and worn-out jeans - I'm reaching for the needle and thread.

 

[mariomike]

Until this happens

And then this

And then all bets are off.

Yup. I went there.

Stop apologizing for morons who are easily swayed by unscrupulous megalomaniacs.

There's a very thin line between a strong democracy and one that just dodged a bullet and frankly it's a line held by only a handful of people. A few dozen in the wrong place at that time could easily have made a disastrous difference. Where would that democracy have been on the 6th if Pence had sided with Trump and walked out of the Capitol and not finished the process?

Well said.

Hopefully, that never happens in Canada.

 

[FJAG]

Well said.

Hopefully, that never happens in Canada.

Or the US.

 

[Kirkhill]

It's Sunday - Kirkhill's Shorter History of Authority and Gods in the Western World

Have you ever bought a car and been told by the saleman: "I have to talk to the boss?"​

A second opinion and someone to blame

Individuals​

Talk to gods​

Shamans and Oracles​

Temples and Priests​

Meeting place, time keepers​

Markets, judges​

Who watches the clock and judges when the time is right to open the market?
Who follows the clock so they can get to the market on time?

9500 BC	Gobekli Tepe​
8820 BC	Stonehenge Marker Posts​
3400 BC	Kushim, the Sumerian accountant signs off on 18 accounting records​
3100 BC	Orkneys​
3100 BC	Newgrange​
3100 BC	Bryn Celli Ddu​
3100 BC	Stonehenge​
3100 BC	Pharaohs - Narmer-Menes​
3100 BC	First Slaves - En-pap X and Sukkalgir held by Gal-Sal of Sumeria - the first named slavemaster​
1400 BC	Moses and Aaron​
753 BC	Romulus self appointed King​
716 BC	Rex Romanorum elected by the clan leaders in the Curiate Assembly​
510 BC	College of Pontiffs - Priests advising the Senate​
	Pontifex Maximus - the speaker for the 3 man council, elected by the council​
300 BC	College of Pontiffs packed and committee raised from 3 to 9​
	Pontifex Maximus - the speaker for the 9 man council, elected by the council​
82 BC	College of Pontiffs packed and committee raised from 9 to 15 by Sulla​
	Pontifex Maximus - the chairman for the 15 man council, elected by a separate committee of 17 from the 25 tribes of Rome, approved by the College​
63 BC	College of Pontiffs of 15​
	Pontifex Maximus - the chairman for the 15 man council - Caesar elected​
27 BC	College of Pontiffs packed and committee raised from 15 to 25 by Augustus​
	Pontifex Maximus - the chairman for the 25 man council - role assumed by the Emperor​
27 BC	Emperor-Pontifex Maximus​
	The Emperor is Priest​
81	Domitian​
	The Emperor is God​
286	Diocletian Division​
	Gratian-Emperor​
379	Damasus-Pontifex Maximus​
	Theodossius-Emperor​
756	Stephen-Pontifex Maximus​
	Pippin-King​
800	Charlemagne-HRE​
	Leo-Pontifex Maximus​
1075	Investiture Controversies​
	God's authority debated by men​
1122	Concordat of Worms​
	God's authority now decided by rules created by men​
1305	Avignon Pontifex Maximus​
	God's authority kidnapped by France​
1347	Black Death​
	God exerts her authority independent of men​
	Pontifex Maximus 1 - Bartolomeo Prignano as Pope Urban VI​
1409	Pontifex Maximus 2 - Robert of Geneva as Pope Clement VII​
	Pontifex Maximus 3 - Peter of Candia as Pope Alexander V​
	God's authority now vested in one of three men - the magic is gone​
1414	Council of Constance​
	Men decided who would have God's authority​
1438	Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges Gallicans​
	Local men have a say in who would have God's authority​
1517	Luther's Episcopalians​
	Local Prince decides who has God's Authority​
1534	Tudor's Anglican Episcopalians​
	Local Prince decides who has God's Authority​
1536	Calvin's Presbyterians​
	The community at large decides who has God's Authority​
1555	Peace of Augsburg - Cuius regio, euius religio​
	Local Prince decides who has God's Authority​
1560	Knox's Scots Confession Prebyterians​
	The community at large decides who has God's Authority​
1581	Brown's Congregationalists​
	The club decides who has God's Authority​
1591	Arminius's Non-Subscribers​
	We don't know who has God's Authority​
1624	Herbert of Cherbury's Deists​
	We don't care which God has Authority​
1670	Cambridge's Latitudinarian Platonists​
	God and his Authority make for an interesting debate​
1689	Locke's Toleration​
	God's Authority is not critical​
1754	Hume's Atheists​
	God has no Authority​
1791	Madison's Bill of Rights​
	God has no role in the State​
1869	Huxley's Agnostics​
	It doesn't matter who has God's Authority​
1882	Nietzsche's Atheists​
	God is Dead​
1899	Individualists​
	I am my own Authority​
1960	Jimmy Hamilton's Personal Responsibility​
	We're all going to Hell our own gait​
2023	Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Wells​
	Who Cares?​

Jimmy Hamilton is the wisest man I ever knew.

Interesting to see the Romans perfected the art of changing the rules and stuffing institutions to get the desired outcome.