Democracy and Self-Determination

Gerard N. Casey reflects on the concept of political representation.

He writes:

In the arena of governmental justification, democracy is the only game in town, for if there is a fundamental article of faith in the contemporary world, it is not that God is dead or that soccer is the beautiful game; it is, rather, that democracy is a good thing. So entrenched, so widespread, so accepted is this belief that to call it into question is to invite bafflement, bewilderment, bemusement and, when it becomes apparent that one is not joking, dismay, disbelief, and derision.

And also:

[E]ven in our sophisticated modern states, however elegant the rhetoric and however persuasive the propaganda, some rule and others are ruled.

We may also be reminded of one of the many things the great and late Erik Maria Ritter von Kuehnelt-Leddihn said:

We are always ruled, there is no escape.

The blog comments link to an article by one Barry Loberfeld, who writes:

As the no-end-in-sight march of greater government demonstrates, there is no reason to think that democracy is a check on despotism. An electoral majority can indeed embrace the concept and agenda of unlimited statism. “Totalitarian democracy” exists, not merely as a troubling conjecture, but as a threatening possibility.

The Joy of Curmudgeonry also draws our attention to a classic quote by G.K. Chesterton:

It is a most extraordinary fact that all modern talk about self-determination is applied to everything except the self.