Genius of Democracy is in the Details

15 December 2011

The following is a nice piece that furnishes a quick summary of how government, namely the “social contract,” has evolved, yet continues on its exclusionary path of the people it governs. If you thought Democracy was alive and well, Bill Bonner urges you to check your premises.

“…the genius of modern representative government is that it cons the masses into believing that they are insiders too. They are encouraged to vote…and to believe that their vote really matters. Of course, it matters not at all. Generally, the voters have no idea what or whom they are voting for. Often, they get the opposite of what they thought they had voted for anyway…. …now the insiders are in trouble. The typical citizen is beginning to realize that he’s been had. As long as the insiders could plausibly promise him more and more benefits, he was willing to go along. But now, growth has stalled. They can’t deliver. The insiders keep borrowing — more than $10 trillion this year alone. Soon, they’ll be out of credit…out of time…and out of luck.” Full Article →

The genius of our representative democracy, then, is that it is not representative at all. Yet if furnishes the political elite the legal and presumptuously moral rights to tax our wealth. Just something to chew on for a while.