Clarification: When I write, I don't prepare or organize my ideas, I just write what I would say if I was talking to you in person, so sometimes my blogs end up a little messy. I don't even proof-read what I write before posting it so you may find grammatical mistakes and poorly written sentences. Sometimes I'll read my blogs a day or two after publishing them and I may re-write things that weren't too clear and any embarrassing grammatical mistake. Also, English is not my first language, so I apologize if reading my blogs become a struggle. Of course, if this is the case, I would imagine you wouldn't continue reading.


Mar 16, 2014

What Is Democracy?

  • Would you say democracy is present in a place where people have the right to vote but most of them don't understand what they are voting for or are voting based on misinformation/prejudices?   
  • A democratic country is having elections to decide whether the government should be allowed to control information, censor whoever/whatever they like, and arrest anyone they want. The people voted "Yes", the government should have such power and it doesn't take long before it does. Can this be considered a valid example of democracy at this point?
  • A family of Scientologists doesn't allow their kids to be in touch with the "outside world", they believe that too many alien spirits are roaming around to consider that a safe option. The kids turn 18 and feel quite happy within the Scientologist community. Local elections are around the corner and they are ready to vote for the Scientologist candidate, which wants to ban all pharmaceuticals, teach Scientology in elementary school, and demand every person in town get audited twice a year. Would you say this is a good example of democracy?
  • An AAA (Abusive Alcoholic Atheist) parent kicks the shit out of his son, who ended up running away from home and never looked back. Later in life he needs to vote to elect the next president. One candidate is an atheist and the other a fundie. They both seem nice and reasonable people, but their ideologies couldn't be more extremely opposing. Son, who doesn't believe in anything in particular, decides he's voting fundie, because the trauma his dad caused really fucked him up and he can't trust atheists anymore. Do you think this is a clear example of democracy?
  • If everyone except a small percent of people lost their fucking minds (not literally, they are actually clinically sane, but something like if, for example, everyone became a member of the church of Scientology, which while unlikely, it is not entirely impossible, since many people who are very intelligent, rational and successful have converted to Scientology in the past), and this was driving their country to its ruin by having most people voting for irrational faith-based proposals, like spending billions of dollars on the research of eMeters, auditors, and centers for "re-education", instead of spending that money on real problems and things that provide true benefits to society. Would you say this is just a quirk of democracy? Would you think the sane minority has enough justification to take the power by force? Or would that be comparable to saying "Let's poop on democracy in the name of democracy"?
  •  A multi-trillionaire funds the research to create a machine that allows whoever has it to alter people's impressions and ideas, and I'm talking about the people of the whole fucking country. The dude knows that this device is powerful enough to turn around an election. He decides to run for president and wins. Would you say he won democratically?
If you answered 'yes' to some of these question, then think about what that means. I think this comment I wrote after posting these questions of Facebook, explains what I'm trying to say with all this:
 
I think democracy has been true to its name, it's a system where the people rule by voting. What I don't think was taken into consideration was that our choices are not always the product of a rational analysis, but are influenced by external or internal factors that could end up making us choose against our own interests. Ya know what I mean? Democracy implies you're choosing what you have concluded is the best for you, not that you are choosing what others have concluded was more beneficial for them, for example.

 

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