Democracy is Our Only Friend

Demagoguery is another word for the elites (however they may be defined) telling the hoi polloi to shut it.

Fascinating, riveting stuff, don’t you think! You see, folks, the war against democracy is as old as time itself.

I am certain that it is one of the things quite cyclical that make the universe go round and round. Power doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It exists suspended just like the anti-matter particle in the Angels & Demons movie. When the social conditions change, power drifts to one of the poles of the containment cylinder representing Society. One pole is occupied by a few chosen figures of authority, and the other is occupied by Us All. Each of its moves signifies social convulsions, infighting, violence, abuse and murder. For Society to be safe from its exactions, Power must be contained in a balanced manner divided equally among the body politic.

This is what Democracy is. And while it is not perfect, it is as close to perfection as possible given the Human Race’s functional limitations.

As for democracy having flaws, they are the least of concern compared to those exhibited by closed systems like plutocracy, autocracy, elitocracy, aristocracy, adhocracy, meritocracy, bureaucracy, gerontocracy, mediocracy, mobocracy, technocracy, teledemocracy, thalassocracy, or theocracy.

And the reason is so simple to the point of being elegantly so. In most -cracies, power is divided among a number of people ranging from One to Ten, Fifty, a few hundred, a few thousand, many tens of thousand, or even more. Which would be fine if the number of people holding political power or delegating it via elections to representatives, would be the same with the number of citizens.

But in all but democracy, the two numbers do not coincide.

In a democracy, power is divided equally, at least theoretically, among all citizens. And that prevents the accumulation of power in just a few hands. Because such an aggregation of power is always detrimental to the liberty, security and personal integrity of the body politic.

But since most people never learn, I guess some have bought into the new narrative equating democracy with demagoguery and both with failure.

As for I, I believe that people should spend most of their waking days choosing their collective and individual paths in life.

And the best way to do it, from an individual and collective perspective is to start with the individual and move towards society at large.

No collective system can be predicated on the misery of the few for the benefit of the many.

As for BS narratives dictating that a few should always be sacrificed in order for the many to survive or thrive, again that’s why I firmly believe that most people never learn anything from their experiences. And are only content to run their daily cycles on repeat until the end of their natural lives.

Nobody should have the right to utter such monstrous aberrations. Nobody. Or to express myself clearly, everybody should be allowed to utter anything, but anyone should also have the right to call them out to their faces. In other words, everything should be out in the open, just like Swiss Direct Democracy. The Swiss Landsgemeinde used to be applied in almost all the cantons of the Confederation. Not anymore. And if you want to know why, I have a few working theories.

The first that comes to mind is the fact that Swiss Direct Democracy is expressed in the open public market, where popular voting is performed on municipal and cantonal issues. The ballot is NOT secret so everybody can see how everybody else votes. And this is how democracy is meant to be exercised. Because hiding behind secret doors never did anyone any good.

The biggest lie that came to life in the last two centuries was that for democracy to work voting has got to be secret. BS.

Voting is secret and nobody really knows who voted how. And because of that there is no post-factum accountability. Not for the people voting wrongly. No remedy for the future. Nothing! Nada! And pardon me for saying this, but hiding behind a screen to cast your vote serves no purpose. It affords no benefits to society and makes no sense from a mechanical point of view. The purpose of voting is making an affirmation, a choice, a selection. This ought to be shared with others in plain sight. We need not be ashamed of our political choices, whatever these may be. We should proclaim, defend, and stand by them with all our might. It is the only real choice we have.

Democracy is not demagoguery. Democracy is not rotten. Democracy needs not to be abandoned for other schemes. Democracy needs to be open, universal, and applied to all areas of human endeavor. The people who call for abandoning democracy are insane. Democracy has not failed us. We have betrayed its original principles. If we need to find someone to blame for its results, we have only to look at ourselves, who have perverted its Primordial Elegance.

Call me a demagogue but life should not be about the pursuit of societal scapegoats. Life should be about the pursuit of happiness and justice and its only constraint ought to be the boundaries of other people’s happiness.