Saturday, April 27, 2013

What Is Democracy?

Democracy is the freedom to elect our own dictators.

What is democracy?

The freedom to elect our own dictators?

Or the freedom of the majority to exercise mob rule under the pretense of being civilized?

Or perhaps something else?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is democracy? It is rule by him who can sway the passions of the many? And who is that? It is he who can appeal to the lowest common denominator. Democracy is rule, then, by the worst, at the expense of the best. It is the triumph of the foolish and vicious over the wise and virtuous. It is the inverse of aristocracy.

Modern democracy is worse, though, as it is not just a form of government but a religious idea. Thus it infiltrates all areas of society, both by justifying the endless expansion of the state and by importing democratic ideas where even the state cannot yet reach.

Modern democracy is no less than the sacralisation of kakistocracy.

Anonymous said...

The question mark at the end of the second sentence above should be a period.

J.K. Baltzersen said...

Thank you for your thoughts, sir.

I usually reserve the term democratism for the religious idea.

notgump said...

Paraphrasing Marx, Democracy is the opiate of the people.