What to do when democracy fails.

[coberst]

What to do when democracy fails.

In a democracy the citizens are sovereign; when the citizens of a democracy haven’t the capacity to comprehend the problems of that democracy that democracy will fail.

Human ingenuity has proven to be capable of producing very sophisticated technology. But humans seem to be unable to develop the intellectual sophistication required to guide and control that technology. That is to say that democracy cannot function adequately in this high tech society we have created.

Our financial system’s abrupt collapse is one manifestation of this problem. Few of our experts, if any, have the sophistication to mange this high tech economy that we have created. Certainly few if any of our (USA) citizens have the sophistication to make decisions about this matter.

A large democratic state cannot consistently function within a world that is beyond the comprehension capacity of the citizens of that democracy.

We have tried Monarchy, Oligarchy, and now Democracy.

Where can we turn when our technology outstrips our intellectual sophistication?

To me the only direction that seems available is that since we cannot achieve the commensurate intellectual sophistication demanded by our technology then we must curtail the use of such sophisticated technology.

[Rosewin]

We are not a democracy. America since its inception has been a republic and intentionally designed to not be a democracy. Democracy has been labeled as a mobocracy and has been described as two wolves and a chicken deciding what's for dinner.

[coberst]

The economy failed because the American citizens failed to show due diligence regarding the politicians they elected and the kind of public policy that the nation has followed. The citizens failed in their task because they lack the will to become sophisticated enough to comprehend the facts necessary to accomplish their task adequately.

[Quill]

Now what can be done about it?

[SRCivic98]

The only other thing that seems possible to come out of the fall of this nation, my country and love USA, is that we're going to see either a communist nation or a modern day Empire that's going to start World War III because of the resources that people want and need. OPEC is in control of tons of the world's money and can't get enough of it. They want high gas prices and the oil companies from here and around the world want more money because people are going back to the old ways. Plus has anyone been noticing how almost everything is becoming illegal and no one is safe from the law unless you pay someone off or are a celebrity? This great nation is falling downward fast and there's no way to bring it up from a full on nose dive without killing your self. I hate to say it but this nation is and will fall but I can promise you that I'm not going to let the innocent people and the weak fall and wither away to ashes because I'm going to do what I can and as much as I can to protect them and keep them alive and leave their hopes a float as we move into a new world order and time of dispair.

[Pauly Dangerously]

I think Warren Ellis said it best. "Democracy won't fail, at least in the sense that it exists right now. A society can't be perfect nor doomed. But that it can be better. And the people who get to decide if it's going to be better or not are the people who show up and raise their voices. The world is headed towards a monoculture. Every independant state relying on every other to get by. Media is the new religion, presidents are the biggest figureheads for coporations, and no one gives a damn. Not as long as American Idol and The Hills are still on. That's what a monoculture is. It's everywhere, and it's all the same. And it takes up foriegn cultures and twists them and rearranges them into a homogenous building-block shape that fits seamlessly into the vast blank wall of the monoculture. This is the future. This is what we built. This is what we wanted. It must have been. Because we all had the choice, didn't we? It is only our money that allows commercial culture to flower. If we didn't want to live like this, we could have changed it any time, by not paying for it. So lets celebrate by all going out and buying the same burger." Paraphrased, Warren Ellis.

Edited January 5, 2009 by Paul Noise