Democracy Has Failed

Democracy Has Failed

February 23rd, 2009

Democracy finds its roots in ancient Greece, where Athenians and others were allowed to vote for their political views. Aristotle wrote about Democracy in his work, Politics. He said it worked for small groups for small periods of time, but would always eventually degenerate into a mobocracy. He didn’t think very highly of other governmental systems either, though. All aristocracies would eventually degenerate into oligarchies, and all monarchies were destined to become tyrannies. Or as Kant would say: “From the crooked timber of humanity, nothing ever did grow smooth.”

Montesquieu in his seminal work The Spirit of the Laws discusses the same problems. That democracies seem to thrive when there are high pitches of civic virtue, a 3 Musketeersian ‘one for all, and all for one’ that pervades the streets and animates the discussions of people who sit around the cooler. He thought it might be best for small nations but showed little sign of success in large ones.

Churchill later summed up history’s thinking on the subject with his bon mot: “Democracy is the worst form of government on earth, except for all the others.”

The strength of democracy is hard to counter. Most of the democratic world is wealthy, free, technologically and scientifically advanced, has a long lifespan, and peaceful. For hundreds of years democratic nations have thrived while dictatorships caused disastrous wars or committed atrocities against their own people. Even the dictatorships of the world sought to cloak themselves in the legitimacy of democracy. The ‘People’s Republic of China,’ the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” And the endless fake elections pre-arranged to yield near 100% unanimous support for the endlessly elected dictators of Africa, South America, and the Middle East. Now we seem to be nearing the age where the whole world will become democratic, or even join a global democracy erasing all states on earth.

And yet, how can we view an institution that has so universally betrayed its own people, so swiftly destroyed the work of eons, as current-day democracy? How is it that a scientist who just cured cancer is only given one vote on the direction of his country, right alongside the 18 year old high schooler who’s never done a thing in his life, the felon just released from jail, the illiterate retard who can’t tie his own shoes, the follower of fashion magazines who votes based solely on how ‘hot’ the politician looks, and all the other human drivel that washes up on our national shores? It is handing over the keys of the asylum to the inmates, to allow any schmoe to set public policy. No one takes a vote on how to fix a plumbing or electric problem, we hire the expert who knows what needs to be done, and pay them to do it. In fact, common sense reigns in every other field of thought. Doctors do not treat patients based on a massive vote of the electorate on what they think the doctor should do to help, they simply use their knowledge and expertise and do it themselves. And yet when our country need fixing, when our country needs treating, we immediately resort to a vote to figure out what should be done. What just happened? No one would trust their life to a vote under the doctor’s knife, and yet we all willingly hand over our country and the fate of our children to the exact same process.

It is not even true that in a democracy, bumbling morons control the levers of power. If only! This basic error of democracy is compounded when special interests peddle their influence to gain votes from said bumbling morons. Money buys politicians, because it takes money to run a campaign and advertise to people to vote for ‘x’. Whoever pays the piper, calls the tune. Having a good idea or a brilliant plan that would improve the lives of everyone in the country is not the path to political power in a democracy. Winning votes is the path to power, and the easiest way to do that is to continuously saturate people with media and commercials talking about how great you are. It doesn’t need substance, only style, and the masses drink it up. Most voters have no idea what positions our politicians hold or what plans they have to help the nation. They simply go into the voting booth having heard and read lots of good ‘vibes’ about their candidate and turn the lever. When the media plays kingmaker by saturating the news coverage with a slanted favorable coverage of one side and unfavorable of the other, it becomes nearly impossible to gain traction with the masses.

The worst mistake of democracy was expanding it beyond its intended borders. Democracy was always meant to work for a small, publically spirited, nation of biologically related, culturally related, linguistically related, folk. So long as everyone was related, it was doubtful one group would wish the enslavement or destruction of another, or that one group would routinely underperform the other and become a burden on their neighbors, or that there would be irreconcilable differences between the differing political parties. The moment democracy metastizised to include such basically different groups as Flemings and Walloons, Quebecois and Anglos, or Luo and Kikyou, we created a new democratic curse — tribalism and the unified voting of a tribe to gain wealth, power, and prestige from the competing tribes. 98% of blacks voted for Obama, not because they just so happened to think he was the best qualified candidate, but because they felt he would support his fellow blacks once in power. This kind of democracy devolves to a tribal head-count, or two wolves and a sheep voting over what’s for dinner. Three wolves or three sheep can vote on that matter rather fairly — a mixed-species democracy cannot.

It gets worse. Once diversity has begun in a democracy, it becomes an unstoppable force that gains momentum every election. Why? Because inevitably, one party will seek power by peddling to new immigrants. In this case democracy has completely reversed itself, as the government seeks to abolish the people and elect a new one. If they can’t get enough votes from the current electorate, why adjust their platform or become better people? It’s easier to just find some tribe out in the world that would vote for you if you let them immigrate into your country, and voila the natives no longer matter or have any say in their own government’s policies. Only by restricting the vote to one unified nation can this kind of coup be stopped–once your country is a ‘nation of immigrants’ anyone and everyone can quickly be deciding the best use of YOUR money, YOUR land and YOUR children. In the past transportation was not sufficiently advanced to simply parachute in a hundred million bantus to win the next election for your country, but now this is a simple and easy technique ‘democracy’ can rely on to gain or keep power.

Never have people been less free than under South African democracy. Crime is higher than a war-zone, the courts do not catch criminals and do not protect innocents brought up on bogus charges. The government openly loots the treasury, while all the tax dollars collected come from the hopelessly outnumbered whites to be splurged on the hopelessly helpless blacks. The borders aren’t controlled, Black Economic Empowerment means no amount of schooling, intelligence, enterprise, dedication, or virtue will let qualified people get the job, disease completely cripples the country while the Presidents make ridiculous statements like HIV doesn’t cause AIDS or taking a shower after sex prevents the catching of AIDS. Fetal alcohol syndrome, alcoholism, drunk driving, black magic body harvesting rituals, and the rape of tens of thousands of babies are just more unique gems South Africa showers down upon its denizens. And yet people are still allowed to vote in free and fair elections for whatever party they like. What does it matter? The outcome is determined ahead of time, by the very nature of democracy: The influence of money, the stupidity of the masses, the diversity of the country, the lack of civic virtue or public-mindedness, the lies of the media, the use of immigration as a weapon, the ease of acquiring unearned wealth and power through government-enforced redistribution, on and on. Not a thousand or ten thousand elections will ever elect the proper ruler for South Africa, or a proper political platform for that country, one that could actually heal the nation and help its people. Another source of legitimacy, another selection process is needed, for South Africa and the ailing democracies of the entire world.