That’s me (or who I aspire to be) right there!
“I didn’t expect you to be interested. I’ll just be standing over here in the corner in case you decide you like truth and goodness.”
@tripu I knew you would like that character 😆 scientifically engineering public holidays based on the optimal number of yearly breaks for an average number of hours/week and an average amount of stress/hour. Sounds like a dystopia!
😆
Well, I was talking in general there (cold utility calculations, cost/benefit analyses, redesigning traditions, etc).
But wrt fesitivies you forgot the most important point there: picking the best individuals/groups to honour! 😃
@tripu yeah, let's vote every 4 years to decide who we honour on each holiday... I'm sure that won't end up badly at all 😂
Who talked about voting?
Assuming we do want official national holidays, the calendar should be decided much in the same way other important, long-term decisions are made already: by technocrats, via international consensus, through Constitutional reforms, or via a referendum held once in every generation or so. That is how most decisions are made, actually — nothing new here.
Technocrats and politicians routinely decide what expensive medical interventions to subsidise and what conditions are too rare, unpopular or expensive to treat within the public health system. International treaties about commerce, war, energy, immigration, etc are written, signed and held for decades without the populace ever voting. Someone in your country decided exactly how many aircraft carriers to buy (or not buy) last year without consulting you. Experts advise governments (and politicians decide) about whether to phase out that nuclear plant, build a new dam, buy foreign debt, sell an island to a foreign nation, etc. All that is easily politicised and subject to controversy.
I’m not saying I’m OK with all those important decisions being made without my input. I’m just saying redesigning national holidays with a cost-benefit mindset shouldn’t be essentially different from all that.
