Maybe its time for change? Maybe democracy has had its day, is this a new beginning or a return to the dark?
So now that the Frankfurt group , a bunch of unelected Germans and French have effectively managed to oust both the elected Italian and the Greek Prime Ministers and replaced them with their own Technocrats, is this another nail in the coffin for democracy?
While the so-called Arab spring states are fighting for it, the birthplace is rejecting and corrupting it. We lecture other countries and fight wars for it yet it seems back at home its now longer working. What kind of message is that sending?
Maybe the average chap on the street chucking bricks at the police is not aware of the subtle shift thats seems to be happening amongst the democratic countries? Or are they? Things happen so fast these days because of the internet. Lets not forget its the web that is the fuel and inspiration for much of the unrest and turmoil in rapidly changing regimes. Information and news is now universal to almost everyone except those states like China where its filtered through the states self serving sieve. In many ways this is the ideal time for these nations to be seeing the problems that democratic countries face, after all nows the time they need to be questioning what system they need to follow or indeed develop for themselves. Who knows maybe they will emerge with a solution for the rest of us.
But it seems doubtful that it will be anytime soon, from here in my Ivory tower the world seems to think like lighting but act at the speed of an overweight slug on valium. The anthill of humanity is vast after all and the 7 billionth member is only a few days old.
So whats wrong with democracy? Well how about the fact that if you have elections then any elected person is going to be worried about keeping his job as soon as he or she is in it. The promises and dreams of what they are going to do to progress society to the next level of nirvana quickly become second place to making sure you or your particular gang dont get ousted at the next round of the ballot box. The same holds true for corporations, the executives dont work for the company, they work for themselves. They are interested in their paychecks, their careers and their next job. The culmination of this folly is all too evident in the obscene compensation of the banking industry, but the principle is rotten across the corporate world in general.
If that wasn’t enough, how about the idea that we elect people who represent us and our views. How can a couple of hundred men and women truly represent the needs aspirations and dreams of millions. Especially as these few hundred themselves have to represent a handful of political factions. The fact that the public is so apathetic about elections, government and politics isn’t because they aren’t interested its because they don’t have any real power. Real democracy would mean the people could change things quickly and smoothly in line with the mass of feelings of the populace. They would be able to be a involved as they like and make a real difference if they were backed by the majority of feeling, free to make their own mistakes even. Isnt this what we allow our children to do once they have come of age? Isnt it a duty to the future generation. Do our politicians treat us like children? Uhhh yes , yes they do! Are we destined to suffer a type of patriarchy rather than democracy? Are we going to children until the day we die? Is that why I feel so bad when I see politicians younger than me telling me what I can and cant do?
So the state of Europe is fascinating to watch , is it the start of a new more autocratic ‘hyper non democratic benign dictatorship’ Which would certainly have its supporters, or is it to fail and disintegrate with some new order arising from the ashes. Cant wait to find out.
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