50 Year Nukes, Good Governance, Prosperity and Education

Headed out to the "Net Change Week" event this evening.  Got to ranting to Alfonso before the presentations about a few of my pet theories and wound up with this chain:

  • we've got a maximum of maybe 50 years before any rogue nation or disgruntled group can acquire the knowledge required to create nuclear weapons
  • we could attempt to police all nations, all groups, all teens in their basement to block anyone from producing nuclear weapons... it doesn't seem practical, though we may have to try anyway
  • given that policing likely isn't sufficient, we likely need to move to some situation where individuals and groups would be unlikely to attempt (nuclear) attacks
  • Justice (with a capital J) and a belief in the rule of law to allow you to achieve happiness is the key thing that reduces the incentives of groups to resort to armed attacks
    • If you have a path forward (hope, dreams achievable within the current system), and can trust that everyone is "playing by the rules" (or will be held accountable if they are not) you are far less likely to want to tear down the society
    • This is more important than e.g. material wealth.  Without good governance, wealth tends to lead to corruption, which often increases the misery of the people
  • To bring about Justice and belief in the rule of law, you need a populace that demands Justice and the rule of law. 
    • People need to see good governance as their due, they need to be educated enough to hold people in power (at all levels) to account (via reporting, auditing, and generally critically thinking about what they are being told)
  • To feel that they have a path forward, the people need to have access to (real) avenues for self development, education being the key avenue
    • education is key because it enables most other endeavors to be accomplished more efficiently, from communication and organization, through technical projects and social expression
    • education is also key in developing a populace that rejects corruption
which, of course, is the wrong reason to want to help people... but anyway, there's the chain of thought for posterity.

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