Making the World Safe for Democracy

Democracy isn't everything it's cracked up to be.

Don't get me wrong, I love the United States, and like Churchill I'm pretty sure that Democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. But Democracy isn't the end-all and be-all of government in the world. Not only does it clearly have its own set of problems, but other varieties of government can clearly persist, be stable, and support the population sufficiently well that humanity has come to encompass the entire globe, living (for the most part) lives that are relatively comfortable and rewarding compared to our distant ancestors'.

This is the point where my non-libertarian friends start making observations about the supression of various peoples, starvation and poverty throughout the world, and the elevation of a priviledged few at the expense of the vast majority.

Um, this is different from America how?

Maybe in America our situation isn't as bad as elsewhere, but supression? We've got it in spades: Native Americans, African-Americans, people who look and talk differently. Starvation and poverty? Hell yes. Walk through the urban core of any major city and you'll see that. Elevation of a priviledged few at the expense of the rest? Halliburton, Enron, Microsoft, the entire Bush family...

And lest we forget, one of the greatest thinkers to come out of the Cradle of Democracy, Ancient Greece, thought that Democracy was an awful idea. Plato thought that hoi polloi were too easily swayed by good speakers or beautiful people and should not be left to govern themselves. Hmm... maybe he was onto something there...

But I really think that America's strengths and advantages have much less to do with our form of government than with our cultural standards and world view. The reason a determined person in America can go from poor immigrant to CEO of a multi-billion dollar company isn't because Democracy ensures equal treatment. Rather it's because Americans for the most part (and maybe grudgingly) respect and make way for the can-do attitude. Americans also seem to put up with a lot of shit, but when push comes to shove won't stand for it and make change. That attitude can range from the relatively mild response of the recent mid-term elections, to the more extreme American Revolution or the response of the passengers on flight 93.

Maybe Democracy has helped to inspire this world view, but I'd much more likely lay the inspiration at the feet of the pioneers who came over here to establish lives for themselves away from their cultural centers. America was created by people who got tired of the way the rest of society treated them and so struck out on their own. Let's not get into the morality of killing and subjugating the native peoples and just take this at face value: we're here now, and that's how we got here.

Why this obsession with determining what is the "best" form of government, and then pushing that on everyone else? As much as we might like to see the people of the world determining their own destiny, there's an excellent chance that Democracy simply doesn't work as well for other cultures as it has for us. Maybe a prerequisite for a workable Democracy is that take-no-shit attitude, and cultures that have been taking shit for millennia just aren't up to it.

In the meantime, here we are now in the 21st century, and more and more signs are appearing that Democracy will cease to be the dominant form of government in the world. In fact, it's starting to look like the dominant form of government in this century will be the as yet un-named mix of communism and capitalism that is developing in China. I don't want to live in China, and China has massive problems with suppression, poverty, and unjust elevation of a minority that are yet to be addressed at all. But strange and wonderful things are happening there, and the philosopher in me can't wait to see what develops. Here is something truly new.

So could we please let go of this bizarre desire to see "true Democracy" in Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, China, and so many other countries? If the countries have moral or social problems, let's address those issues directly rather than insiting on Democracy as the cure for all ills. Foisting Democracy on the entire world is a dated, cold-war era concept that deserves to go the way of fins on cars, Mr. Ed, duck and cover, and so many other things from that era.