Heretical Thoughts on Democracy

In America, Democracy and Capitalism are sacred.  That is, it’s heresy to question either.

Heresy = an opinion or doctrine at variance with the orthodox or accepted doctrine; or, any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs, customs, etc.

“We’re defending Democracy” is always our rallying call for entering a war: “We must maintain our Freedom!”  We say.  Note: we often use these words, “Democracy” and “Freedom,” interchangeably.

For example, fighting for Democracy and Freedom was our justifying rationale for starting and maintaining the war in Iraq: “We’re freeing Iraq from a cruel and vicious dictator; we’re giving the Iraqi people a chance to have a free and democratic government!”  This rallying call became especially important after discovering that Saddam Hussein really did NOT have weapons of mass destruction.  But, ten years later, we’re now asking, “Was it worth it?  Do they have a real and viable democracy?  Are they really free?  Why are we entangled in this mess, still?  What went wrong?”

What we are too polite to ask is, “How could our leaders, the President, Congress, the Senate, as well as highly visible and influential Media talk-show hosts at the time, have been so mistaken, so naïve and foolish, and so shortsighted and blind as they were, to have gotten us in this mess in the first place?”

To this day, there are those who will in effect say “Yes it was worth it.  We made no mistake; I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”  Imagine that, thousands of lost lives and a financial cost of almost a trillion dollars later and they’d still say, “Yes, it was worth it.”

Such a response only proves my point.  And the point is this: to question, challenge, or doubt certain aspects or actions respecting our capitalistic and democratic beliefs is tantamount to heresy, and heretics are usually burned at the stake (literally or figuratively).  And so, when it comes to our beliefs about Freedom, Democracy, and Capitalism, e.g., we turn a blind eye with unquestioning faith and suspend all critical analysis.  And our politicians know this.  That’s why, when they want our support, they carefully phrase their causes and their actions in American Civil Religious terms such as “Freedom Fighter,” “Patriot Act,” “In Defense of Liberty and Democracy” etc., and then wrap themselves around the American Flag when so doing.

Now here is my heretical point.  Our particular form of Democracy is not necessarily the best form of government for all peoples in all places at all times.  Besides that, there is no such thing as a pure form of democracy anyway.  Here’s another heresy: We don’t want to admit that it was our shear arrogance—about capitalism, about freedom and democracy, and about our own strength—that entangled us in this resource-depleting and life-draining Iraqi war, and that we are a weaker nation because of it.  (For example, China is now poised to become the number one economic power in the world, moving ahead of the U.S., in just a few years.)

There are two fundamental weaknesses to a democratic system: (1) voters are easily duped, i.e., their votes can be easily bought and sold by this or that (false or misleading) persuasive ad.  And (2), voters can be stubbornly obstinate, shortsighted, and selfishly wrong or misguided; i.e., they’ll vote for immediate gratification while avoiding serious complicated issues, by pushing them off into some vague and distant future, refusing to accept hard and difficult solutions to weighty and difficult problems, until it’s too late.