Democracy Fails

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25% of people are below average, 50% of people are average, and 25% of people are above average. The majority rules, and when the majority is wrong, they pull a nation down into the depths of dystopia. The dystrophy is not so readily apparent to most people, because they like feeling empowered. However, the truth is that democracy promotes ignorance, blind faith, and political corruption. We can do so much better...

Azagthoth is absolutely correct. Voting needs to lisenced based upon satisfactory completion of a graded test measuring social and political knowledge, so that only the most aware and engaged can participate and the ignorant masses are safely denied participation. Implementing this will also provide the electorate with inspiration for self-betterment, as when they realize their political participation is contingent upon their actual knowledge it will inspire them to take a break from their phillistine consumerism and instead educate themselves intellectually. With any luck, we can transform this society of degenerated bourgeose into a society of aristocrats.

Agreed. Along with modern technology, such a society could possibly become legendary.

Suggest an alternative. Be concrete and specific.

ruveyn

OP thinks democracy = vote. I don't think that's exactly the way it works.

its doesn't. Currently you can indeed vote for a candidate for president... the problem is the narrow selection of people you can vote for is tightly controlled by elements outside the electoral system (aka the masses don't have a 'vote' on who gets to run to be candidate).

So in the end, the US democracy is quite literally a careful facade to give people the illusion that their vote counts. Behind the candidate is the party, behind the party is the economic elites that puppeteer the party. Those who run outside the 2 powerhouse political party system get shunned by the media as de-facto because *drumroll* the same people that puppeteer the political parties also own the media system. Just look how the media shunned Ron Paul in 2008...and even actively worked to block him from being on the air.

All in all its no different at all from the old chinese and ex-ussr sham elections: the people end up given the choice to vote for puppetA or puppetB...both of which are wired to the same puppeteer.

So...the enemy of ignorance, blind faith, and corruption,is dictatorship?

What exactly are you saying?

Um yeah, Democracy might fail but there has never really been one. There is always a ruling class with more influence than the masses.

Wrong. 50% of the population is above average, and 50% is below average.


Religion does the same thing. So do dictatorships and other minority-rule (Oligarchical) systems.


Like what? Anyone can criticize, few can resolve.


Doing so denies ordinary citizens the right to self-representation, leading to a feudal system, with non-voting serfs ruled by an elite class of nobility, which not only passes all the tests, but designs and grades those same tests to ensure the perpetuity of the ruling class.


And for those of us with special learning needs will be left out of the system, as would anyone who "fails" the examinations at the behest of an aristocrat.


Aristocracy is a form of Oligarchy in which a small, elite group of people rule over the gentry, the commoners, and the serfs. Only the Aristocracy can enact laws, pass judgments, argue cases, enter into contracts, and own land. Aristocracies primarily consisted of an elite aristocratic class, privileged by birth through heredity and often by wealth through inheritance.

What you people are proposing is an even more of the same; 1% of the people controlling 99% of the wealth, with the addition of controlling 99% of the government. The only exception being that you would take away the right to vote from all of those whom you deem "Not Good Enough" to be an aristocrat.

One other feature of Aristocracy that is not always obvious: One aristocrat is often the sock-puppet of one or more other aristocrats.

Shocking, isn't it?

Any system can fail the U.S.S.R and Eastern Europe did in the end.

But the question is what would replace it in the end.

Starship Troopers voting speech.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Yrw7QNx1U[/youtube]

^ Nice speech. I am a veteran. While I believe that every legal citizen has the right to vote, I also believe that I've earned that right.

yes you earned your rights with other peoples money,

i do agree that voting is a right or more precisely; having influence over those that act on your accord.

Typical ... you have that backwards. I earned my rights and my pay with my "blood, sweat, toil, and tears". We all earn other people's money, and then it becomes ours.

I hope that you will remember that gentle people (cowards and slackers alike) sleep comfortably at night because rough men like me (veterans) stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

what system would you prefer, if i may ask?

If only intelligent people were allowed to vote, I would win every election, but I don't want to be elected, ergo, such a restriction wouldn't work

Many theories of political science cite the stupidity of the electorate as a great "leveler" to guard against "Commodusian" leaders as to allow the "Ronald Reagans", but this doesn't explain how to prevent an optimistic contra of "A Confederacy of Dunces".

Many "experts" want certain grouped individuals kept from voting, and one such common group has members within the Spectrum of Autism, which would be illegal, but in one election in California, a majority of the electorate voted that 66% of the voters' votes should be nullified by 33% of the voters' votes being decisive in any decision, which means that a majority voted against majority rule.

Majority rule isn't necessarily democracy, and vice-versa, but.......

Maybe gun ownership will continue to be easier than driving and/or voting, though political order seems questionable with these Magnificent Seven with the only rights.

Tadzio

P.S.: For examples of prejudices and rights with voting:
http://www.inklingmagazine.com/inkycirc ... tradition/