Anti-Racism
01-12-2007, 10:46 PM
Plato, speaking through Socrates, tells us that while democratic societies make for the best standard of living, they collapse into third world economies dominated by invisible and greedy oligarchs; the cosmopolitan rich ruling over masses of stupid, tractable grey cultureless peons. A tour of failed democracies reveals this to be accurate. So why oppose democracy, when it brings us a good standard of living?
The first recognition is that democracy is not the only system that brings about such a standard of living. Any organized society which does not act according to a principle of hyper-equality, or not rewarding those who are more competent with a better material standard of living, will achieve a quality of life unless its leaders become corrupt. Democracy initially offers this option, but it nurtures corruption in its leaders by the psychological symbolism and pressures it exerts on the population.
First, in the list of psychological and political errors of democracy, is its tendency toward averaging. When one person = one vote, the only leaders are those who seek to be popular in their opinions, and accuracy is interpreted through what others want, not what is correct (it was against this phenomenon that the profoundly individualistic Romantic movement in literature arose). Those who speak unpopular truths, and rise against the assent of the masses, are seen as motivated by personal desire for power and slammed down as best they can be. Democracy admits every kind of dissident except one that profoundly criticizes the system; those who encourage people to "buy green" and "vote blue" and do other ineffective things are OK. Democracy coopts all criticism into neutralized variants.
Second, democracy encourages a shallow individualism based on material self-interest. Since the system as a whole is not steered toward any rational direction by its reliance on the popularity of ideas and not their accuracy, individuals practice shrugging and doing what they can to make their own lot in life better. The problem with this is that often individual self-interest conflicts with the needs of the whole, or with what would be an intelligent course of action, so democracies are rife with "socialized costs" or acts that in enriching individuals create costs or wasted time for the rest. In a democracy, every action or object has a price tag on it because it is necessary or will be necessary for someone's material self-interest. Democracies tend to invent capitalism of the most unregulated kind for this reason, because individual self-interest likes the idea of no confining rules interrupting the pursuit of wealth and a comfortable (although insignificant, psychologically) lifestyle. For this reason, democracies "work" when populations are small, but populations inevitably expand, bringing with them the modern lament "I'm surrounded by morons" as simplistic people succeed and breed out legions of new simplistic people. The individualism of democracy results in the comfortable standard of living mentioned by Plato, but this comfortable standard of living is not assigned to the best, but to the mass, and so the undifferentiated masses grow while competent people are beaten down for being out of step.
Third, democracy creates a morality of parasitism: since it is founded on the idea that each individual is free to pursue self-interest, any action that denies any person self-interest is "bad," even if that action results in much higher socialized costs. This means that parasitic people cannot be checked from doing destructive things because as long as their actions are passive, or in self-interest but not violating visible taboos of murder or rape, these actions are accepted. Democracies cannot curb large corporations from their abuses because democracy encourages such abuses on a psychological level, and this tendency is intensified by growing frustration with democracy. As a result, democracies are stuffed with wealthy parasites whose descendents lack any of the abilities that made the parasites succeed, furthering the degeneration of population into insignificance.
Fourth and finally, democracy creates a schizoid dualism between public perception and reality that engenders a covert, tacit and non-conspiratorial system of oligarchy. When power is achieved by convincing the voters that something is good, those with printing presses or television stations rule the society, but are best served by not taking power themselves. Instead, they support those who benefit their self-interest, regardless of the cost to society as a whole (socialized cost), and through legal forms like lobbying, donations, and supportive media portrayals they get these candidates into office. Eventually, the system of oligarchy becomes so entrenched that political candidates solicit various oligarchs for approval in order to get into office, and then are beholden to them in decisions they make. For this reason, democracies generate a massive amount of debate over trivial issues -- abortion, gay marriage, drug legalization and banning hip-hop music -- while ignoring the deeply-seated problems from whose atmosphere of lawlessness oligarchs benefit. Oligarchs usually do not act outside the law, although their legal and passive actions result in higher costs for us all.
http://www.corrupt.org/data/faq/#4.4
http://www.corrupt.org/data/faq/#4.4
Seems succinct and rational to me. The average person cannot make the decisions to rule. Tell them they can, and they become queens.
The first recognition is that democracy is not the only system that brings about such a standard of living. Any organized society which does not act according to a principle of hyper-equality, or not rewarding those who are more competent with a better material standard of living, will achieve a quality of life unless its leaders become corrupt. Democracy initially offers this option, but it nurtures corruption in its leaders by the psychological symbolism and pressures it exerts on the population.
First, in the list of psychological and political errors of democracy, is its tendency toward averaging. When one person = one vote, the only leaders are those who seek to be popular in their opinions, and accuracy is interpreted through what others want, not what is correct (it was against this phenomenon that the profoundly individualistic Romantic movement in literature arose). Those who speak unpopular truths, and rise against the assent of the masses, are seen as motivated by personal desire for power and slammed down as best they can be. Democracy admits every kind of dissident except one that profoundly criticizes the system; those who encourage people to "buy green" and "vote blue" and do other ineffective things are OK. Democracy coopts all criticism into neutralized variants.
Second, democracy encourages a shallow individualism based on material self-interest. Since the system as a whole is not steered toward any rational direction by its reliance on the popularity of ideas and not their accuracy, individuals practice shrugging and doing what they can to make their own lot in life better. The problem with this is that often individual self-interest conflicts with the needs of the whole, or with what would be an intelligent course of action, so democracies are rife with "socialized costs" or acts that in enriching individuals create costs or wasted time for the rest. In a democracy, every action or object has a price tag on it because it is necessary or will be necessary for someone's material self-interest. Democracies tend to invent capitalism of the most unregulated kind for this reason, because individual self-interest likes the idea of no confining rules interrupting the pursuit of wealth and a comfortable (although insignificant, psychologically) lifestyle. For this reason, democracies "work" when populations are small, but populations inevitably expand, bringing with them the modern lament "I'm surrounded by morons" as simplistic people succeed and breed out legions of new simplistic people. The individualism of democracy results in the comfortable standard of living mentioned by Plato, but this comfortable standard of living is not assigned to the best, but to the mass, and so the undifferentiated masses grow while competent people are beaten down for being out of step.
Third, democracy creates a morality of parasitism: since it is founded on the idea that each individual is free to pursue self-interest, any action that denies any person self-interest is "bad," even if that action results in much higher socialized costs. This means that parasitic people cannot be checked from doing destructive things because as long as their actions are passive, or in self-interest but not violating visible taboos of murder or rape, these actions are accepted. Democracies cannot curb large corporations from their abuses because democracy encourages such abuses on a psychological level, and this tendency is intensified by growing frustration with democracy. As a result, democracies are stuffed with wealthy parasites whose descendents lack any of the abilities that made the parasites succeed, furthering the degeneration of population into insignificance.
Fourth and finally, democracy creates a schizoid dualism between public perception and reality that engenders a covert, tacit and non-conspiratorial system of oligarchy. When power is achieved by convincing the voters that something is good, those with printing presses or television stations rule the society, but are best served by not taking power themselves. Instead, they support those who benefit their self-interest, regardless of the cost to society as a whole (socialized cost), and through legal forms like lobbying, donations, and supportive media portrayals they get these candidates into office. Eventually, the system of oligarchy becomes so entrenched that political candidates solicit various oligarchs for approval in order to get into office, and then are beholden to them in decisions they make. For this reason, democracies generate a massive amount of debate over trivial issues -- abortion, gay marriage, drug legalization and banning hip-hop music -- while ignoring the deeply-seated problems from whose atmosphere of lawlessness oligarchs benefit. Oligarchs usually do not act outside the law, although their legal and passive actions result in higher costs for us all.
http://www.corrupt.org/data/faq/#4.4
http://www.corrupt.org/data/faq/#4.4
Seems succinct and rational to me. The average person cannot make the decisions to rule. Tell them they can, and they become queens.