Why Democracy?

It is certainly comforting to believe that democracy is inextricably linked to freedom - but is it true?

In my last essay I wrote about freedom and the primal and primitive urge to be free. For this reason and because freedom like love, is a yearning of the soul, I said in that essay (Why Freedom?) that it could not be defined, only experienced.

What we call “democracy,” however, lends itself to multiple, more or less valid definitions. The best known of these, “of the people, by the people, for the people” is an ideal that was born out of the crucible of the American civil war. Based on a dispassionate analysis of history, however, we could also define democracy as Government of the deceived, by the deceiver and for the deceiver!

Whereas freedom and the urge to be free arise from within, democracy necessarily has several external conditions and pre-conditions imposed upon it by succeeding generations. Many of these conditions, including the rather naive but noble idea of “free and fair elections” are imposed upon us as soundbites by democratic dictators, who understand the power of propaganda.

How many of our elections are truly free? And fair? If the turnout for an election is 56% for example, what about the 44% who could not or did not vote?

Nowadays, many of those who do not vote believe that there is no real choice between the candidates or between political parties - and that every politician of every party is beholden to money and the global corporations. In other words, politicians whether from the right or from the left, or the “centre-right” (a convenient election slogan) or “centre-left” (an even more convenient election slogan), are merely salesmen and saleswomen for the corporations. Does democracy address the lack of real choice?

There is another noble idea that has been taught to us in civic classes in high school and college - that the three arms of a democratic government are the legislature (parliament or the U.S. congress, for example which make our laws), the judiciary (judges and the judicial system) and the executive (the police, for example). In order for a democratic system of government to be legitimate, we were taught, these three arms of government must be independent of each other - another condition of democracy.

But it is a partisan government that most often appoints judges who are supposed to be completely impartial in the dispensation of justice! Justice, far from being “blind” is all-seeing and all-knowing about who or what it needs to please in order to be considered for high office. Judges in our democracies may even donate to a particular political party - and still be appointed to the bench! Thus it is, that the independent judiciary in our democracies have become the dependent judiciary - and can it then be expected not to caress the hand that feeds it?

It is perhaps even worse (as in some American states) when judges are directly elected by the people. If a majority of people believe in racial segregation for example, a judge must also so believe, in order to be elected. In this case, the more rabid the rabid belief, the more likely a particular rabid judge will be elected to high office.

Is the legislature truly independent - and do laws written in the ornamental chambers of our democracies result in the peoples’ collective and individual good?

The bribing of elected (and candidate) politicians in our Western democracies has been renamed, “lobbying.” The deception is complete - you can even become an official briber (lobbyist) and bring millions of dollars (and ideas) to politicians with official approval. For example, in the USA, literally billions of dollars are spent every year by the officially approved “lobbyists,” to make our elected politicians craft laws that favour them. The list of top lobbyists in the USA includes big pharma, arms manufactures, hospital corporations, car companies and Amazon. Foreign governments can also become official bribers (lobbyists)! Treason by any other name still doth to high Heaven stink!

Several other deceptions exist to convince the population that elected politicians represent the peoples’ interests. Politicians often act as magicians and pull off the conjuring trick of pushing forward laws in areas that the people did not even know existed!

For example, as I write this, the idea of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) is being ferociously championed and promoted by dozens of countries, including parliaments and legislatures in our Western democracies. How many citizens knew of this when they voted our politicians into office? How many of our people can even define and understand CBDC? Did the people realize how the CBDC already exists in China (the “social credit system”) and that Chinese citizens can be denied basic services based on their political beliefs? The dystopian implications of a CDBC are certainly not what the majority of voters desired when they voted - and yet, out of thin air, it has been conjured for legislation and law-making by our democracies. Once elected, our elected representatives are subject it would seem, to spells, incantations and magic!

“The Executive” in our democracies is commonly understood to include the police and other supposedly “independent” agencies such as MI6 (UK), CIA (USA) and CSIS (Canada). They are supposed to implement the will of the people, independent of the other branches of government and subject to the nations’ laws. In practice, their actions often directly endanger and imperil the lives of their citizens.

For example, the police recently acted directly on behalf of a Canadian prime minister to enforce a brutal suppression of ordinary, law-abiding citizens. The elected prime minister was able to act even without parliament (by declaring an “emergency”) and the police was then able to get banks to disable the bank accounts of citizens who did not agree with the prime minister.

In the United States, the CIA routinely acts against the interests of Americans. It engineers wars and foreign coups that are directly against the interests of ordinary citizens. But this famed and celebrated (in movies) executive branch of government also directly targets its own citizens for intimidation, kidnap and forced experimentation. Even such a biased vehicle for information as Wikipedia has graphic, disturbing details of the “MK Ultra” CIA program in which the governments of the USA and Canada participated - and which was directed against their own citizens.

There is another terrible flaw of democracy - its utter inability to distinguish the casual, nonchalant and disengaged voter from the voter who is completely invested, completely engaged and completely passionate about his or her vote. Here’s my poem about this:

… what about the vote

clutched close to her breast

and cast with ALL her heart

against the two, three, ten,

perhaps a thousand,

or ten thousand votes

cast by those

who thought no more

than this -

that it was their “duty”

to vote?

If the scales of justice should swing,

how many votes will it have swinging wild

upon the scales for her?

And the filed results

will they reflect truth?

bring her remedy

against votes cast

half in doubt?

Tyrannies that are justifiably imprinted in the hearts and minds of people in our Western democracies as being unacceptably evil include the fascist totalitarian dictatorships that took hold of Nazi Germany under Hitler and fascist Italy under Mussolini.

Democratic rule by contrast, is undoubtedly a superior system and no moral analysis of the record of history can prefer fascism over democracy. But is a commitment to defending democracy the best way to guard against the evil of fascism?

Both Hitler and Mussolini came to power through an initially democratic process - both were initially elected by the people. And both skilfully manipulated the democratic process to entrench themselves in dictatorial, totalitarian regimes. An initially democratic Nazi government was also responsible for the systematic genocide of Jews, Poles, other slavic people, the gypsy people, homosexual people, the disabled and political opponents.

Present day democratic governments can also morph into fascist tyrannies. This might already have happened (or is happening) under our very noses. Our freedoms are not necessarily taken away in one fell swoop, but a little at a time, until the people awake at last - and find themselves under an elected tyranny that they themselves voted into power!

It is not democracy therefore that must be defended, but freedom. The searchlight of freedom must repeatedly be used to ferret out the dark places of democracy. Every democratic action must be judged by the yardstick of freedom; every elected official must answer to the call of freedom; and every act of elected officials, judges or the police that threatens our freedoms must be fiercely resisted.

Those who devotedly and doggedly defend freedom have the advantage that the light of freedom can never be put out, no matter how fearsome the tyranny and how deep the darkness may seem.

As the Gospel according to St. John reminds us, “The Light shines on in the darkness and the darkness has never mastered it.”