Democracy is the best political system the world has ever seen. And yet, in this day and age, we see it falling apart all around us.
I should probably mention that this thread was inspired by three other threads in which I participated, plus a PM exchange between myself and our good friend James S Saint.
The three threads are:
Will machines completely replace all human beings?
and Fellow Americans, I ask you this…
It was the “Will machines completely replace all human beings?” thread in particular that inspired me (actually it inspired me to PM James, and the exchange between James and I inspired this thread). In that thread, James posted these videos as evidence of the real presence of corruption and conspiracy existent in the American democratic system:
Now my own views on the state of corruption and conspiracy in the American system (I should probably mention that I’m Canadian) is not as extreme or black and white as James’. But it concerns me nonetheless–for two reasons:
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What affects America affects the rest of the world. I make no mistake about the matter: America is today’s leading superpower. What would happen if that superpower grows corrupt? If it becomes totalitarian? I’ll tell you what will happen: the rest of the world will go with it (Canada will be first in line).
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America–at least at one point in world history–was a beacon of hope for the rest of the world (I think it still is for some, but it’s losing that status fast). It was an inspiration. It showed humanity what human beings could do if they were free and united, what kind of world they could create. I don’t want to see that die.
The problem, as I see it, is that our understanding of how democracy works has grown stale. We are being nostalgic. We are holding onto an idea that worked 250 years ago. This is not a call to overthrow democracy, keep in mind, but a recognition that it may be time to think about how to reform democracy–how to make it work in this day and age. As many ILP members in the threads I linked to above have pointed out: the problem is that politicians in today’s democracies have become too clever for the system. They have found clever ways of getting around the checks and balances. Also, as Carol Rose mentioned in the first video above, it is also a problem with the law not having caught up with technology. The Patriot Act has opened the door for the NSA and the DHS and the FBI (and other three-letter abbreviated organizations) to use computer programs to collect data from cell phones, emails, the internet, and spy on American citizens (I’m told they throw out all data pertaining to other countries–including Canada I suppose–but why should I believe that? What’s stopping them from spying on me? Hell, they could be tracking this very thread!) Another branch of technology that the government has hijacked is the media. This, mixed with Big Business, means that the government–even in this democracy–has grown powerful beyond all expectations. I don’t know if that means all hope is lost–yet–but I know that these are the challenges that a new reformed democracy will have to overcome if it is to work and restore a balance of power between the people and the government they chose.
Again, I stress that I don’t think we ought to overthrow democracy–it’s the best system we’ve seen to date, and frankly I can’t think of a better one. Thus, our only option is to rejuvenate it, to revamp it, to reform it. Like Martin Luther who was a devout Christian and did not want to overthrow the religion he was brought up on, but to simply reform it and make it pure as it once was, I too don’t want to overthrow what I believe in (and I presume the rest of the Western world–or even all humanity if that’s the case–believes in too), but to simply make it work again, as it once did.
So I intend for this thread to be a brainstorming of ideas–anything goes–and I kindly ask posters to withhold blind cynicism ← a lack of hope is the last thing we need.