Hello,
Welcome to another post from Serfdom Road.
For this week’s article, I’d like to tackle (or rather, burn) a sacred cow of western civilisation - democracy.
TRIGGER WARNING!!!
The following article may induce feelings of anger and/or anxiety.
Please continue reading at your own risk!*
*Seriously though, I just believe it’s time we start questioning, at a deeper level, how we live our lives…have fun reading!
What is Democracy?
Democracy is derived from the Greek words demos (people) and kratos (rule) - rule of the people.
Other forms of government include: monarchy/autocracy (rule of the one), aristocracy (rule of the best), oligarchy (rule of the few), plutocracy (rule of the wealthy), technocracy (rule of the experts), and anarchy (rule of none).
Democracy usually appears in two forms: direct or representative.
Direct democracy involves all people participating in all decision-making processes, whereas representative democracy involves the election of politicians to rule on behalf of the people.
Whether direct or representative, decision-making is decided by majority rule. However, some democracies include a constitution that (supposedly) protects the natural rights of the individual from the majority.
One of the first societies to use democracy as a method to organise themselves was the city of Athens (~500-300 BC) - this is also where the flaws in democracy first appeared.
The Peloponnesian War
During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), fought between Athens and Sparta (an oligarchy), the young Athenian democracy invaded the Aegean island of Melos and delivered to the people of Melos an ultimatum - join the Athenians in fighting the Spartans, or face annihilation.
The Melians declined to aid the Athenians, and so the Athenians laid siege to Melos - killing all the men, and selling the women and children into slavery.
The siege of Melos is sometimes referred to as one of the great genocides of the ancient world - by the democratic city of Athens.
Even during the ancient period of Athens, there were some philosophers that saw the flaws in a democracy.
In The Republic, a book by Athenian philosopher, Plato (b. ~425 BC, d. ~345 BC), Socrates (b. 470 BC, d. 399 BC), another Athenian philosopher, is quoted as saying, “Democracy with a grandiose gesture sweeps all this [principles] away and doesn’t mind what the habits and background of it’s politicians are; provided they profess themselves the people’s friends, they are duly honoured.”
Socrates can already observe that not every member of a democracy has the ability to select a decent representative - one with the guiding principles that would enable the flourishing of individual freedom.
Socrates also goes on to describe, nearly 2,000 years prior, how a democracy can mutate into something resembling Nazi Germany:
“…the mass of the people, who earn their own living, take little interest in politics…They are the largest class in a democracy, and once assembled are supreme…Their leaders rob the rich, keep as much of the proceeds as they can for themselves, and distribute the rest to the people…Those whom they’ve plundered are forced to defend themselves…They [the rich] are then accused by their rivals of plotting against the people…they [the rich] see the people trying to wrong them…out of ignorance and because they’ve been misled by the slanders spread by their leaders…”
In this struggle the people eventually put forward a popular leader and “that this leadership is the root from which tyranny invariably springs.”
Cato’s Letters
Prior to the American Revolutionary War, two British writers, John Trenchard (b. 1662, d. 1723) and Thomas Gordon (b. 1691, d. 1750), wrote a collection of essays known as Cato’s Letters, published from 1720-23.
Their pseudonym, Cato, was taken from Cato the Younger (b. 95 BC, d. 46 BC), a Roman senator - famous for being a proponent of republicanism.
Both Trenchard and Gordon held positions within the British government, and both had concerns about unrestrained government and public corruption.
While Cato’s Letters offer an articulate defence of individualism and limited government, Robert Walpole (b. 1676, d. 1745), the British Prime Minister at the time, tried to censor the essays by bribing the owner of the London Journal - the first journal to publish the essays.
Despite attempts to censor the essays, Cato’s Letters would eventually become a major influence for the future Founding Fathers of the United States of America.
United States Declaration of Independence
The American Revolutionary War (1775-1783) between the 13 British colonies of North America, against the British Empire of King George III, resulted in the United States Declaration of Independence, in 1776.
The 13 British colonies eventually broke with Great Britain due to the lack of representation in the British parliament, while also being subject to heavy taxation - no taxation without representation.
While considered a constitutional democracy (one that protects individual rights against the tyranny of the majority), there is one interesting fact about the U.S. Constitution, created in 1787: it never mentions the word democracy.
The so-called Founding Fathers of the U.S.; George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay; were proponents of classical liberalism (the protection of the natural rights of the individual) and republicanism (the guarantee of natural rights that cannot be repealed by a majority vote).
Many were also students of Ancient Greece, and therefore were aware of the flaws in democracy.
Provisions were made in the U.S. Constitution to protects the natural rights of the individual and to ensure competent representatives of the people. These provisions included:
- “No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States”
- “No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States”
- “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended”
- “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
The Founding Fathers new all too well about the tyranny of the majority, and drafted a constitution, they believed, would protect the rights of the individual long after they were gone.
Hitler’s Rise to Power
After the defeat of the German Empire, during World War I (1914-1918), Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated and the Weimar Republic was formed.
However, with immense war reparations to be paid to the victors of the war, Germany struggled to service it’s vast national debt and a period of hyperinflation ensued from 1921-1923.
In the aftermath of the hyperinflation crisis, Germans turned-out for the 1924 election - the Social Democrat Party won 21% of the vote, while the little-known German Workers Party won 0.12% of the vote.
By the 1928 election, the Social Democrat Party won 30% of the vote, while the newly formed Nazi Party won less than 3% of the vote.
Then, after the 1930 election, the SDP’s share of the vote decreased to 25%, while the Nazi Party increased their share of the vote from the previous election (less than 3%) to 18% - now the second largest party.
Eventually, during the 1933 elections, the Nazi Party became the dominant party with 44% of the vote, while the SDP became the second largest party with only 18% of the vote.
With only 44% of the vote, Hitler’s Nazi Germany would go on to kill 6 million Jews, and spark a bloody Second World War that ended with three-quarters of 100 million people dead - all starting at the ballot box.
Modern Colonialism
U.S. President George W. Bush (2001-2009) was a proponent of democracy.
In late 2003, he said, “Our commitment to democracy is being tested in the Middle East…The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution.”
However, Bush was conflating two very different words: democracy and freedom. As we have seen in the past, democracy does not always lead to freedom.
This same mistake of conflating democracy and freedom was made during the Vietnam War (1955-1975), the Korean War (1950-1953) and the more recent invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003).
Each conflict seemingly a waste of time, resources and precious life - all leading to less freedom for all involved, including U.S. citizens.
From the internment of 120,000 people of Japanese decent in U.S. concentration camps during World War II, to the enacting of the Patriot Act (2001) which allows banks to freeze your account, without any notification, for suspicious activity; much freedom has been lost for the citizens of the United States.
Did Bush’s “global democratic revolution” really introduce more freedom to the world?
Absolute Power, Corrupts Absolutely
Just what kind of person would make a ‘good’ politician? Who would be attracted to a seat of power, with the ability to coerce and manipulate the hoi polloi?
Well a psychopath would definitely thrive in that environment.
In fact, one could say, government is the perfect place for a psychopath to refine their ‘skills’.
This point can be summarised in a famous quote by Lord Acton (b. 1834, d. 1902), once a member of British Parliament, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men...”.
Almost all politicians are the worst kind of people, with the ability to manipulate a gullible mob to do their bidding.
This becomes a problem for even those that prefer limited government: to only protect the citizens within it’s borders (e.g. the police), have courts to adjudicate disputes, and to protect it’s citizens from external threats (e.g. an army) - aren’t these functions too important to be left to our psychopathic politicians?
Do we want to give psychopaths a monopoly on power?
The Average Voter
Former U.K. Prime Minister Winston Churchill (b. 1874, d. 1960) is often quoted as saying, “Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms…”.
Churchill could see the imperfections in democracy, but still valued it as the best form of government.
However, Churchill was also quoted as saying, “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
This quote perfectly summarises the deep flaw in a democracy - it’s people.
Democracy quickly mutates into mobocracy, or mob-rule, if the people are easily manipulated by odious politicians.
American comedian George Carlin (b. 1937, d. 2008) made a similar quip about the average voter, “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
In other words, if the average IQ of a country is 100, then using a normal distribution curve, 48% have an IQ between 70 and 100 - that’s a large percentage of the population with little-to-no critical thinking ability.
Although, even for the ‘intelligent’ in society, Thomas Sowell (b. 1930), an American economist, has said, “Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.”
So, perhaps, even an intelligent, critical-thinking, and well-read society is still susceptible to the primitive nature of man?
More importantly today, the average voter is bombarded with 24-hrs-a-day news outlets; each with their own perspective or bias towards a news story.
The average voter really does not have the time to sift through all the noise in order to learn the truth.
A healthy democracy, if we want one, needs an informed public; today, we have a public divided into two extremes on every event.
Now, more than ever, democracy is as close to mutating into tyranny, if not already, as it has ever been.
Market Democracy
A democracy; whether direct, representative, or constitutional; is clearly flawed - it is immoral for a majority to use force or coercion on a minority, that violates their natural rights, via the ballot box.
However, there is another way people can vote on how society should be: a free market.
In a free market, everyone can be a voter, with only the power and influence their wealth permits, and with only the wealth their customers (voters) permit to them.
Any monopoly on power, roads, water, oil etc. can only exist if the market decides it should be so.
No government interference in our choice and unit of money, no government debasement of our currency (or money substitute), no government bailouts for collapsed banks, and no illegal wars financed through debt.
Although scary at first, a society that has to take full responsibility for itself, is likely one that will prosper the most.
The exact opposite is a government in total control of society - a world we are rapidly travelling towards today.
The Road to Freedom
For those of you that began reading this article as a staunch defender of democracy, I hope you now, at least, can see it is not quite the beacon of freedom and prosperity you once thought.
With every election cycle comes another opportunity for the helpless masses to elect a strong leader that can wield their monopoly on power against you - through taxation, regulation, censorship, or even imprisonment.
In fact, whenever I hear, or read, someone saying, “This isn’t democracy!”, or “Let’s take back democracy!”, I think: “Well, maybe that’s the problem, this is democracy in action.”
Yes, we are in the fight of our lives at the moment, but when the dawn emerges on our new-found freedom, and it will, I believe that a blind belief in democracy will doom humanity to repeat the same mistakes; decade after decade, century after century, and millennia after millennia.
Is a market democracy the answer? Maybe.
For now, I’ll leave those of you still clinging on to democracy with a compromise…
…if we really aren’t living in a democracy, then, perhaps, we are living in a kakistocracy…
…rule of the worst.
Doug Casey’s Take was a huge influence in writing this article.
Please see a link to the YouTube channel below:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEJR3OAeHBNz7aGtFRZXArQ
I hope you have found this article insightful and helpful!
Please feel free to comment below.
Kind regards,
Le Libérateur
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