Democrazy

Clearly, we’re witnessing the greatest evidence that DEMOCRACY isn’t exactly a functional form of establishing ‘extreme executive power’ for a nation or organization or any ‘collective’ of individuals. We credit the Greeks with the first official democracy, but I think the idea of democracy was around ever since one person in a group tried to influence other people in a group to do something… i.e. it’s the foundation of leadership – influencing others to do what you want them to do. A good leader will easily make people feel it was their idea to do the ‘something’ he/she wanted done.

Now, somewhere along the line society got to be quite all-encompassing and suddenly leaders had a lot of things to decide for the groups that formed around them and they wanted to keep them all looking to them for direction so they struggled with the inevitable balancing act between opposing ideas and perpetuating their role as a leader. Most of us do want someone to be burdened with all those tasks without coming back to us every time a decision has to be made for our opinion (i.e. referendums). We elect them to make the decision for us, and we hope they will represent us or our way of thinking… or the way of thinking we’ve been somehow programmed to believe is the right way of thinking on an issue.

Nowadays, we not only have the mass media with the “nudge, nudge… doesn’t this upset you”approach to ensure you keep looking to them for input on your “well-informed” thinking, but we now have huge special interest groups and the entire craziness of social media where everyone (like me) can try and influence the way you think so that you think it was your idea to think this way.

Stay with me, will ya?

Donald Trump is clearly the best evidence that democracy should now be seen by the world as democrazy. Sure, his opponent has some serious decision making flaws in her past (like trusting her hubby not to “not have sex with that woman” or being a techno-phobe that wants one e-mail or cellphone for everything) – but that isn’t what’s wrong. It’s the people… it’s the general population of individuals on this planet that are all so easily manipulated by ideals of some seriously deranged individuals (think suicide bombers actually believing their sacrifice is a good idea or that “whistleblowers” are heroic and in no way whatsoever are motivated by being famous and seen as “leaders of informed thinkers”).

Brexit, separatism, or other “we’re suffering because of you” movements exist simply because people are easily influenced to swing the other way by the media, special interests, or even internet trolls.

Not everyone is EVER going to agree with ANY elected government 100%… that would be nuts – but what’s also really nuts is that once a majority government comes into play because the MAJORITY elected them, they almost instantly become the bad guys because they don’t meet ALL your personal pet peeves (or at least the ones you think are your pet peeves because you’ve been coerced by others into thinking this way). I’ve voted Conservative and I’ve voted Liberal, and the parties never really represented me when they won… but that’s the next problem with democracy – “The leaders, parties, etc… aren’t there to really represent you – they’re there to try to ensure their party will win again next time (did you notice I used all three homonyms there?).

Different government structures vary the way a given democracy will work – the U.S. version is a perfect example of the whole “It’s all about me” approach to democracy that clearly resounds with changing the spelling to democraZy, but they’re not alone. Arab Spring evidence of the power of social media and networking of like-minded individuals to flip governments over – unfortunately to the point that really nut-case based groups rise up in the confusion. They’re proof that we need to elect a smaller group to represent all of us rather than let all of us try to establish a government that suits our needs like say — a cult.

Meanwhile in Canada, the right to vote is definitely something worth preserving and the right to disagree with a decision made by your government is vital as well – but just because you are in the ‘opposition’ doesn’t mean that you should oppose everything… and just because you are the elected government doesn’t mean that you are always right and truly representing the constituents across the country. Both sides really should learn to “listen” to more than just the noisy crowds that whine because people have another flaw – they only engage in democracy when they are opposed to something! People don’t “waste” their time voting “for” something – but they will certainly see value in voting “against” something or someone.

Voter Turnout during elections is evidence of this. In all nations with a democratic government, people vote against parties or individuals consistently – Honestly, nobody actually votes “for” someone.

Back to the non-sense down south: Trump has made comments that most intelligent people would want to stand up and vote against, but somehow he’s popular (and that somehow is that he’s managed to create a zombie hoard of people who think it’s perfectly fine to classify others by the nation they were born in, the colour of their skin, their gender etc… and then to say “those people” are criminals, rapists, liars and cheaters, etc).

Will the world collapse if the U.S. does the unthinkable? Maybe – but we’re human. Empires have fallen before and the world continued to function, although a period of incredible turmoil may indeed be ahead.