Dear Friends,
It seems to me, the reason so many people around the World seek a better life, even to the point of revolution, and find nothing but tyranny… is because they are confused about what means would get them what they truly seek. Revolutionaries throw the word “democracy” around like it is the be all end all. But democracy is not an end it is a means to an end. When ends are confused with means ultimate goals are never met. Moreover, when a sophist means is confused with an end, it is disastrous for society.
What is really sought, is civilization, because it is civilization that is the source of all the goods we all want to see in our societies and in our lives. We all want prosperity for ourselves and our children, almost all of us want to live our lives in peace and to be free of crime, most of us want to be free of coercion even from government and a few want to be free to express our opinions without threat. All these goods come from civilization not democracy. Democracy itself cannot provide any of these goods. It is a means to determine a small part of the whole that is civilization.
No matter how well democratized a government is it can not instill civilization in a people. Religion, culture, capitalism, laws and experience with them… instil civilization in a people. That we are made civilized and not born that way is a self evident fact. This point made by many philosophers over the ages. It is our exposure to civilized behavior, over time, that civilizes us. Pure democracy is, at it’s nature, an uncivilizing endeavor.
Democracy is a good thing, when it is applied to a civilized people, but it can lead to disastrous results, when applied to people who are not civilized. Where a culture, historic government, or system of law is set up for a childish Elite, to have the goods of society distributed to them by political favor, over the merits of their production, that people are not civilized… and will suffer immensely if given suffrage while in this state. They instead should seek a civilized model to adopt first. When the people have become accustomed to civilized behavior, or in other words become rational maximizers, they can be given the suffrage and society can benefit from it.
We see that the calls for democracy, by self described liberators, are never accompanied with a call for civilization… but of the vilification of civilization. How many tin pot dictators have been installed after some coop or other who immediately eliminated the right to vote, either overtly or subvertly, after he was elected? The list is endless. This then, is why civilization is vilified and democracy is called for, it is so the next oppressor can get voted in. The system is a complex one that has the emergent feature of a closed loop. One oppressor is overthrown, by the next oppressor, who calls for an election, is legitimized by the election, and gets to the business of oppressing.
This complex system’s emergent phenomenon of a closed loop, has interdependencies that rely on the people being urged to be egotistical, instead of self interested rightly understood. This tendency of people, who are taught to be egoists, to vote for a pleasant sounding tyrant… is well documented in our history books, but not well understood by the masses in most countries. The call for democracy being the crucial link in the system. If a people were to call for civilization instead, in short order they would start experiencing the benefits that flow from civilization, like a spring producing clean water.
France will be voting today, the outcome will determine if the people of France, are rational maximizers… or egoists. The total break from civilization in France is at hand, if the masses reach a critical mass, of egoism. With a total break from civilization and the unloosing of their collective ids, the spring that is civilization in France will turn to a sewage pipe, leading to the ill health that Greece, Spain and Italy, are suffering. The leaders will blame the egoist people, who are merely a reflection of themselves, for the catastrophes. The people will shout for democracy, and the cycle will begin anew, reset to a lower standard of living for all… Thus proving our assertion.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
