Highest form of democracy is not one that provides freedom for dissidents or alternative opinions. It is one made to organize people life in such a way that they have no need in dissidents or other opinions, to fully kill demand for them.
A. Zinoviev
Vitaliy would you agree the US has become a lot more like the Soviet Union but without the socialism? The US is certainly not a democracy. Plutocracy yes, as are most countries pretending to be democratic. Anyone who doesn't believe that should examine all the crimes governments committed to suppress the occupy movement. Not to mention the crimes against humanity these so called "democratic " governments commit every day.
The concept of democracy and other concepts similar to it by themselves, cannot be true, or even exist, they never did. Democracy it's a very intelligent way to make some people believe that they have the power to vote for decisions that affect their lives. So that they feel comfortable being manipulated.
How can we decide for someone else to rule us, if we ourselves cannot rule our own life?
Can I decide to be perfect, if or not to have a illness? Will I control myself in every situation, will I learn how be absolutely controlled? Are people needs different from each other? Am I an human being with lots of mistakes?
What decision is to be made then, when ambiguity is always present? How to decide for something I'm ignorant about, different needs and worlds, for tomorrow?
Democracy It's not true, not a concept in any country. IS A LIE Someone (does't matter who) intend to make us like a herd, thinking equal, behaving equal, being equal. Biggest LIE ever. We are not equal we are part of each other, that make us a big family, but not equal, different.
So voting and PAYING some stranger who will eventually defend some rules that a group of people with some needs, decided are best for some people who they didn't know, based in some human defects and virtues from a reality some time ago, for that everyone in a community can live "safely" and to have some rights "defended", and their needs "satisfied".
Well that is a lot of suppositions in a world of ambiguity, where you don't know what will happen tomorrow...
That's the "power" of democracy.
The truth is, as far as I'm concerned, that very few people with lots of power (capacity to accomplish things), make the most decisions in how health, politics and economics must behave, in order to fullfill their retorted, particular and for me, inhuman needs.
They do not control ourselves, because We've been given freedom to choose. Will I choose to vote for someone who does't represent me to decide for me, NO THANKS. I choose to be myself (as I am), choose to represent myself, and to understand mi own needs at my speed, respecting offcourse other people needs and their speeds.
LOVE is the only rule.
Democracy is not always a good thing. Look at all the foolish things people have voted for in the past. Tyranny of the majority. The US was purposely founded as a republic because the founders knew that a pure democracy is doomed to failure.
Yep but at the point that Britain and Japan were expanding they didn't have democratically elected governments who were accountable to the population - being small doesn't guarantee democracy obviously (look at the pacific islands to see this). But it helps to keep democracy in check. If everyone is within two or three degrees of separation from the senior politicians then it's harder for politicians to hide.
Although Imperial Japan and Great Britain were small countries that were not egalitarian, then went after larger countries for their resources. Even though Switzerland is often cited as the world's most democratic country, it's the home of conglomerates like Nestle who are privatizing the world water supply...
The other thing that corrupts governments is money - I go to Eastern Europe every couple of years to visit my girl friends family in Latvia, and what I is a country with corrupt government (as well as a small group of extremely wealthy people) and a relatively poor population.
Other countries that do not have as many resources have a smaller, poorer, and more efficient government. But more equality in the population.
I think true Democracy can only really exist with small groups of people, otherwise it's too hard to be accountable.
I live in a country of less than 5 million people - and I consider it to be one of the more democratic countries out there. And the main thing is that everyone is approachable, and there is accountability, I can approach the prime minister, I live in a average suburb and the deputy prime minister lives down the road from me.
Parliament is completely open, I can drive a car right up to the parliament building, 24/7 (in fact I often use it as a place to turn around as its convenient).
In larger countries politicians become untouchable, and superior to normal citizens - this leads to corruption. The prime minister is now better or worse than me, he should have no more or less rights, and he should not be treated differently. He is not superior in any way, he just has a different job.
I think for instance the world would be a better place if the US was split into 50 countries, and if the larger countries in the developing world were split into their ethnic groups. You will never be able to make small countries out of China or India, however you can make them a more manageable size.
The internet is now the biggest tool in democracy.
--which is why some traditional media, ie TV often tries to discredit information from the internet...in politics and even alternative health. Alternatives are dangerous to monopolies
In the shift from direct democracy to representational democracy, the printed book became an embodiment of thought for the physically absent author; and so the popular art form of the popular book and the pamphlet re-presented ideas and contributed to the public space of political philosophies of the Enlightenment. Television, however, now brings forth this new kind of public space, and it calls into being this new world, not of the educated citizenry in a republic, but of the electropeasantry in the state of Entertainment. Recall how people stopped singing in pubs when they brought in the TV set, and you will appreciate the new passivity in which people stop voting for their representatives as TV takes over the electoral campaigns.
William Irwin Thompson (1991) Play, from The American Replacement of Nature
Also informed - so a free press is very important - however this is something which western democracy's are losing.
The internet is now the biggest tool in democracy.
Hierarchists want a world without democracy, and Democratists want a world without hierarchy. Wall St. vs Occupy. Order vs Chaos. Like yin and yang, they're an inseparable dynamic. But... Hierarchists often masquerade as Democratists. So...as Abraham Lincoln probably didn't say " You can fool all the people all the time if you provide cheap hot dogs, cheap entertainment and cheap alcohol!" ...and vetted candidates for public office across the political spectrum, of course.
For example, literacy. A farmer who is able to read will be much better informed than an illiterate farmer and is more likely to influence others (including the white collar guy who lives in a cubicle).
Democracy works best if the population is educated
Can you explain that you mean under "educated"? For example, who best can vote for different agro policies - highly "educated" white collar spending whole his life in cubicle doing pointless reports or highly uneducated farmer who whole his life lived at his farm?
Democracy works best if the population is educated, but it is difficult to educate a dumb population without a form of authoritarian control (whether it's governmental or cultural), especially when resources are limited. Authoritarianism can speed things up (given it's being aimed in the right direction), but it also comes at a price of course.
I think Zinoviev is right, but we should recognize that not all dissent is created equal. For example, a scientist challenging a preconceived notion (like the sun revolves around the earth) is not the same as a creationist claiming the world is 6,000 years old. Should we make it illegal to be an idiot? Sometimes I think we should, but then who will decide who is an idiot?
@Vitaliy_Kiselev so true. keeping everbody quiet with wellfare and cheap alcohol has proven good concept in Germany at least.but all that will come apart someday too.
Sure Mr.Meerkat
Just wait and watch... what else to do?
Seems very similar to life ideology of swamp toad.
Democracy ≠ Majority Rule
Political ideologies... who cares.
Let science rule the world.
Science can't rule the world if things are going normally. And if they somehow will manage it, it'll be shortest and last period in human history. As letting scientist run even small country is same as asking to place author of sea novels to guide ship amongs reefs - deadly decision.
@Vitaliy_Kiselev Sure the devil is in the details :) Just tiresome to think and talk about such stuff. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Just wait and watch... what else to do?
Political ideologies... who cares. Let science rule the world. Let's witness the next evolution (I don't believe in revolution) going forward which doesn't necessarily mean more happiness.
Though from first post is from The Global Humant Hill, very fun thing. I am not sure that english version of it ever existed.
Yet it is not smart to always cite only one quite bad analogy :-)
Internet is large thing :-)
I like this: “We need a dream, a hope, a utopia. Utopia is a great revelation. If people do not succeed in inventing a new, at first sight maybe even useless utopia, they won’t survive as human beings. We need a fairytale, for it is of great importance for people, which chimera to believe in and which fairytale to trust”.
The ideology of the future is neither capitalism nor communism nor a deceitful liberalism — it is a new ideology of human coexistence, based on communal understanding and protection of such basic and principle terms like Human, Life, Love, Joy, Freedom, Truth, Equality, Justice, Pride, Morality, Labor, Creativity, Nature, Water, Air, Earth.
The ethical maxim of the future world is the protection of the planet Earth. All citizens of the future world are members of the Union of the Earth!
Long live the new Renaissance!
Long live the new pilgrims of the XXI century!
I greet you, even if you are yet to be born!
http://zinoviev.info/wps/archives/423 and more interesting words of a widow.
Everything is Animal Farm in one way or another.
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