The Folly Of Democracy

The Folly of Democracy Democracy alone is stupid. I don’t mean this as a baseless attack, or an angst ridden, teen anarchist, war cry, I mean it in a very literal objective sense. In terms of the actions of any democracy, the larger it is, the stupider it becomes. This is based on a very simple idea. But first we must define our terms for the purposes of this debate. First, Democracy: a way a running a state based on popularity. Secondly, Stupid: of low intelligence, inaccurate, false, or unreasonable. In order to agree with or counter this assessment one must attack or support the following statements… •

Geniuses are rare, and by definition will always be in the minority.

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It is logical to prefer a genius as a leader over an average mind.

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If geniuses are a minority, and human breeding is exponential, then the ratio of stupid individuals to geniuses in any society will increase with population. Given that geniuses can produce average children even when paired.

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An average person is more likely to mislabel an average person a genius than a genius is.

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Fair is not always desirable.

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Context controls meaning, and a genius sees more context than an average mind, therefore a genius is more likely to see the underlore of any given situation and thus is in a better position to make an accurate and ethical decision.

All these things considered, is democracy really a good idea? How distant is it from the mob. I believe that government is mafia given legitimacy by duration. Consider this; could lynching be construed as democratic, so long as the majority of persons later ratified the action? How is our prison system not like lynching? Is it not based on a hatred of certain behaviors or ideologies? A majority of people can agree on an idea but that doesn’t make it just or factual. Also, in order for democracy to be truly fair everyone affected by a given decision should have a say in it, and conversely people not affected by a decision shouldn’t have a say. Since we only allow some Americans to vote, and they only comprise 5% of the global population anyway, is this really even a democracy at all

given the size of the American economy and its impact on the rest of the world? For example Iraq didn’t vote for either Bush. Democracy isn’t about egalitarianism; it’s about preventing a revolt. Government systems do not strive to please the populace, they strive only to exist and prevent the populace from getting angry and powerful enough to remove them. We don’t even live in a Democracy. We are a defacto oligarchy, our rulers being Time Warner, Wal-Mart, Disney, Catholicism, etc. There are so many facets of American life that the majority would see abolished or altered if we lived in a true democracy. Just look around, I’m sure you’ll see them. Obligatory car insurance for example. A truly democratic government would encourage and discourage far more often than force. But how is a truly democratic government different from emergent consensus? It isn’t, therefore, democratic government is a misnomer. It’s doublethink. Democracy, it has been said, is based on the assumption that more than half of the people are right about a given decision more than half the time. I personally don’t see how that’s possible.