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pessimizer

> power doesn't have to work this way

Yes, it does. Power is what you can do.

> A functional society finds ways to hold unchecked power accountable for pettiness

This doesn't make sense. Unchecked power is not accountable.

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More importantly if there’s a power that can check it, then that power is the unchecked one.

Why is that more important?

Because if the problem is unchecked power, and any checked power is checked by a power that is checked or unchecked, eventually you either get a loop or an unchecked power, which can then do whatever abuse you're worried about.

How do you figure? “Unchecked” means uncontrolled, not uncontrollable (an important distinction). In a functional social system, different powers constrain one another, which is a kind of loop I guess, but a stabilizing one.

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