Is the Triumph of Democracy a Distant Dream?

I had a very peculiar conversation with someone from a cold and remote place. The man told me he had it on good authority that democracy had to be tempered by giving minorities a voice that mattered. He said that democracy will sometimes produce demagogues, and that the dictatorship of the majority was an evil thing that needed to go away.

He was very passionate about it. And he truly believed, and I think he might still do, that minorities should be respected, tolerated, and protected from the dictates and abuses of democratic majority. I sat and listened to this man who argued very elegantly, yet also so simplistically, for the rights of the few against those of the many.

And I instantly thought about a way to make him realize the folly of his Error. For the man was in error, perhaps one of the most damaging of them all. The man believed his own political dogma. And that should always be a dead giveaway sign that one is wrong.

All of us have been wrong one way or the other. And though most of us never come to realize it, our own intellectual biases set us up for failure. Because any set of fixed beliefs is the root of all evil. When one believes in his own thoughts to the point it lends them an aura of supremacy, one corrupts one’s soul. We have all been there. I was in error not once, but many times. I put people, and countries, on unjustified pedestals. I did so because I wanted to validate my own system of belief by finding a stable and robust scaffold upon which I truly desired to raise the whole world.

I was a bloody idealist once. I thought that surely other people were better, smarter and more just than myself. I allowed them places of dominion in my own mind. I gave them authority over my own ways. They became my idols, my mentors, and yes, my overlords. Oh, and I was wrong.

I did the same thing with countries (Switzerland), political systems (democracy), and only now I realized that I was deluded. If I could give my daughter only one piece of advice, I’d tell her this:

Don’t make yourself any graven image and do not worship any idols, my love, for all of them are False.

Because if you live long enough, you realize that all your dreams and aspirations built on or around others, all your expectations from others and ideation surrounding model-countries or political systems, are for naught. People and places and notions will always fall short of your dreams. But if you ask nothing of them, if you demand and expect nothing from the world, then the universe will conspire to surprise you. Sometimes even pleasantly so. And when your level of expectation is nil, almost any outcome can be a nice change. And sometimes, even more than that.

But these were alien thoughts to the man with whom I was conversing. And as he was pontificating about the merits of respecting minorities’ points of view, no matter how remote from mainstream popular mindset, or absurd, or downright insane or stupid, I realized that I had a ‘mirror’ in my back pocket. And I knew that I wanted to raise it and hold it against the man’s face. So that he could examine his own beliefs as no one really does, until they have to.

So I told the man that I agreed with him. He did not see my acquiescence coming. He was counting he’d have to fight some more before he got me to agree to his brand of BS. But I told him again that I was buying what he’s selling. I told him that I agree with tolerating minorities. I said I definitely agree with respecting others’ point of view, no matter how strange and off-putting it may be. I told him that yeah, the majority should allow minorities certain unalienable rights, including the pursuit of happiness.

And then I asked him something else. I asked him if he knew that one in four Canadians owned a firearm.

The man told me so what. What does that have to do with anything. Well, said I, that makes Canadian gun owners a minority in its own right. And given that the government of this land has been trying for the last five years to ban civilian ownership of firearms, I asked him what and how he felt about this.

I said perhaps Canadian gun owners being a minority, for sure they must also be respected, tolerated by the majority, and their rights should be interpreted with the same duty of care the government has seen fit to accord homosexuals, transgender, LGBTQ+, and all other minorities living in Canada.

The man was strangely and suddenly silent. But his silence spoke volumes to me. You see, I’ve remembered an old fable I had learned in primary school, back in the old country.

In this cute little fable written by Grigore Alexandrescu, two dogs have a conversation about the nature of freedom. The big dog tells the small one how in other, more civilized countries, dogs have freedom and there is equality between dogs. To this the small dog agrees quite vehemently.

He says “Your way of thinking is wonderful, and I wholeheartedly share this sentiment, my brothers.”

To which the big dog replies in anger “Who do you call your brothers?! We, your brothers?! You wicked little scoundrel! I will give you such a beating you will long remember. Do you know who we are?! How dare you, you wicked little mongrel, speak like this?!”

The little dog interjects “But you said…”

The big dog “What do you care? Did I ask you what I said? I spoke truthfully. I said I didn’t have an ego and that I hated the lions. That I want equality, but not for (N.B. “with”) little dogs.”

The poem ends with the author’s conclusion that

“This we often see, And only with the High and Mighty we want to be equal with.”

And this is exactly why the man had stopped speaking. Because the politician in him had seen himself in the mirror and he did not like what he saw. He saw how wrong he was to ask and clamor for rights for all minorities he felt strongly for. Because the principle was wrong.

You must surely see how wrong it is to give credence to all the little factions, minorities, and fringe groups that lurk in the margin of society, all the while ignoring larger minorities whose rights do not even register on the political spectrum. But as the saying goes, whatever works for the goose should work for the gander. So, if we want people to accept all minorities, all ways of thinking, and all manners of doing things, then the same should be demanded from others when it comes to our own particular peculiarities.

But since this is obviously not on the menu, then we should revert to the old proven way of doing things. An issue makes it to the ballot. There is a preparation time, whereby the issue is debated. After a while, the people are called to vote on it. The vote is cast. The majority have it. The minority accept it. Everybody goes home.

It is this way or we start accepting all propositions made by everyone, no matter how silly, financially disastrous, criminally insane, or costly for society or any of its members they are. And that is how chaos is born. And this is how chaotic our world is fast becoming.

So if you want chaos, you must like the direction taken by Western society.

But in the meantime, a Romanian saying comes to mind: Pana la Dumnezeu te mananca Sfinții.

This translates very well into English: before you get to see God, you’ll have to deal and compose with the Saints.

Or in other words, the path to Heaven is as treacherous as that to Hell.

As for democracy still triumphing, I highly doubt it. We think we live in a democracy. The reality is more nightmarish.

Bottom line, the only thing triumphing nowadays is the rule of the few rich and powerful. And ironically enough, they don’t care a fig about any minorities even though they themselves are one.