Debate: Is a government absent of corruption possible?
Side: yes

I gave you an answer a while ago. With our large population, we need a large number of seats. However at the same time, intellectuals tend to steer away from politics. All you're asking for is to find those that are interested, but we still must remember that in a democracy these men must be voted in.Actually that's way off. The intellectuals avoid politics because it is a social game full of deceit and sleazy people, and always has been. For whatever reason it's easier for academics to adopt the mindset of integrity and being above personal bias in information that is to be reported. These people who are needed most to clean up a dishonest system, want the least to do with it precisely because it needs a cleanup.Just to be on the same page; our population is just too large for less seats than there currently is, and the intellects don't care at all for politics; the exact people you say we need to be in power don't want to be there and aren't even remotely interested. The ones that are in power are, more or less, incompetent, but they're the only ones that want to be there.Set aside the current politicians for now. The intellects, and I quote "avoid politics because it is a social game full of deceit and sleazy people, and always has been." Furthermore these academics have adopted the mindset, supposedly, of integrity and as a result are above personal bias in the information they report. And it is this same integrity, this wholeness and honesty, that make these people the desired candidates to amend a flawed system, but they do not want to fix it, and the reason they do not want to fix it is the very fact it is in need of fixing.What you wrote makes perfect sense by the way. Sydney Harris said: "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem, but the perpetual human predicament is that the answer soon poses its own problems." To avoid generating problems you chose to become part of the current problems. History backs you up. Galileo Galilei is the reason Christopher Columbus sailed to America, which resulted in the endangered Native American people (that if they're a species of animal would have to be placed on the endangered species list) and all the other problems that followed fast and followed faster.Also, no persons or groups of people are needed in this world. A mother isn't what a baby needs, a care giver is; and just about any person can fill this role, good or bad.Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.Maybe to academics and other intellects economics, game theory and other social sciences aren't sciences, but to the rest of the world they are. Your Darwin quote has nothing to do with high school hierarchy or much other social applications really. Use it in a religious debate though.If you want to use hard science, I can comply. Geeks and hot girls in high schools and colleges are like Seligman and his dogs (the girls being Seligman). Wait, does the results of his experiment constitute as science or just snafu?I'm more interested in building or programming my latest project than enslaving or hurting our deceptive leaders. I'm sure that many intelligent people feel the same way. Conquest just isn't as interesting or feasible as a personal project.Are conquests not personal projects?I never said anything about hurting anyone (well except for the arsenic thing, but that's neither here or there, and has nothing to do with the leaders). Not that you care, but the highest achievement of 'hurting someone' is to allow this person to hurt himself/herself.So the choice is: take on an army that can immolate a nation, and owns trillions of dollars, or play a game of deception and base building, all in the grand scheme of becoming... the same as your enemies.Refer to the Harris quote.Or simply pay your legal extortioners off and hope that the money does some good, while taking solace in the fact that you still live very comfortably.Paying off an executioner requires trust in both parties. Pay up front and nothing stops the executioner from killing you; a promise to pay later will only delay your death; the moment you pay he'll kill you to cover up his corruption; refuse to pay and he'll do his job which is kill you; blackmail him and he'll just torture you 'till you fess up then kill you. Regardless of what you do, the executioner is going to kill you. So make your peace with death and write a will. Prisoner's Dilemma.Any person with money but no real power is just a fool with money--a girl's best friend.