A question for everyone

How much freedom would you be willing to give up?

Let’s do a thought experiment for a moment.  Let’s pretend that the following scenario is possible:

There exists a system by which the perfect world leader can be found.  This system is self-sustaining, and will always succeed in finding the right person to lead the entire world.  The person selected would be wise, moral, kind and so forth, but would also be firm, fair and responsible.  Under this person, the world will experience no more poverty, no more hunger, no more strife.

Wars would be eliminated.  People would never again starve to death.  Children would never again suffer from malnutrition, lack of education and neglect. 

Everyone would be living in relative prosperity.  Everyone will be able to have at least the basic necessities of life.

All religions would be respected, no racism would be tolerated, no hatred of fellow person allowed.  In short, we would all get to lead the generally free lives we would all want to lead, with the exception of one thing: we do NOT get a choice regarding who leads the world.  The system will choose for us.

This leader, for want of a better term, will be known as the "Benevolent Dictator," for it is he/she who would take charge of every government on earth. 

The Decision: Would you accept this scenario, if offered?  Would you allow one benevolent dictator to run the world, on the understanding that all these other things come true?

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My thoughts?

Well, I can break them down into two parts:

1) I think that this scenario is better than what we have now.  I don’t trust most of the world to properly select the leaders that run our nations.  This scenario will lead to the end of global poverty, hunger and strife.  This scenario would mean there would be BILLIONS more happy people on earth.  And at what expense?  The right to choose your elected leader?  I would say "do it" in a heartbeat.  No hesitation;

2) Do we really trust our leaders anyway?  I mean, truly?  How many of us are sick and tired of the ineptitude and corruption that seems to permeate the vast majority of the political leadership of the world?  I mean, are we REALLY giving up that much?  It seems to me that not many of these so-called "leaders" would ever be missed.

And before you all pepper me with ideas like, "but freedom should always be protected…."  let me say that I think freedom’s good, assuming the choices we make are both capable of improving our lives, and are representative of the very best possible people we can find.  I don’t put much stock in freedom if you only get, for instance, two choices, neither of which really inspires you. 

I’m not advocating a return to a monarchical system; far from it.  I am saying that, sometimes, freedom can be overrated, and where billions of lives are at stake, freedom can especially be dangerous.  After all, how many dictators and/or idiots have we "elected" under the guise of democracy anyway?  And how much damage have they done to our nations, and to the world? 

Of course, all of this is contingent on actually FINDING that perfect leader.  But assuming we do… what would YOU do?