What is democracy ?

[Bright Garlick]

Recently I have been reading and listening to a lot of points of view about democracy, it's history and it's evolution. I am not convinced that democracy is the best model for societies. I don't know what is. But I do feel strongly that it must be Earthcentric.

What is your definition of democracy and what is your ideal ? Is there a nation that best represents democracy ? Is democracy a fiction ?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n23NfDNg6Ow

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbg2hMuhi3s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t23JAGy4wsk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5pJR45HNEM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOOIDIEDHUQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Embs6lajz2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMUGjn1aHK8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBdk5n68gdM

"What is democracy ? It's got something to do with young men killing each other !
For democracy, any man would give his only begotten son".

What are we giving up in the name of democracy ? Is it time for the democratic dream to come to an end ?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzgGTTtR0kc

[indigopete]

'Democracy' is a word we tend to associate mainly (if not exclusively) with party politics.

In actual fact, acts of democracy pervade most aspects of everyday life.

For example, we exercise democracy as consumers - purchasing one product over another, favouring or avoiding certain market sectors etc. In most UK supermarkets, almost all eggs are now free range. That was a huge change that wasn't brought about by parliament but by commercial democracy.

People also exercise democracy when they engage in and proliferate musical culture and the arts. People like Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon and Jackson Pollock could probably be said to have facilitated 'democracy' in a way that's unthinkable for parliamentary systems.

Democratic power is exercised via all the networking technologies that exist today. Even alternative cryptocurrencies are now available to them as alternatives to those established by governments and banks.

The "ideal" for me does not lie in any one social system or political philosophy. It lies in decision making power being diversified and devolved to those citizens who will be most impacted by those decisions. Parliamentary democracy is only one small aspect of this.

So rail travellers should be involved in designing trains, traders should be involved in establishing currencies, patients should be involved in shaping healthcare. I think that with the modern networking technologies available to us, we have a real chance of approaching those ideals. (It happened with free range eggs ! :) )

[sheme]

Democracy is real but it doesn't do what it says on the tin-because who ever is in power gets a taste for power and then sets about buying more power.
As it does not serve the purpose of staying in power to have educated free thinking people -so the people have been systematically dumbed down by successive governments, the government buy the power from the people by giving the majority of government educated people bribes and unearned payouts to breed more dumb people to keep them in power.
The thinking earning people get enough of their earned money back to keep them in the country long enough to build a pension pot, then the gov take that from them . Until the majority of people stop demanding and start taking responsibility for their own lives the only way is eventual collapse. Earth centered computerized decision making has to be the way forward.

[Hervé]

Well... there is this quote attributed to Benny Franklin:


Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!

In short, democracy boils down to:


"To hell with minorities!"

[christian]

Democracy is a compound word with Greek roots.




demos = "common people"

kratos = "rule, strength"

I don´t like it, because it generally implies a "rule over others" scenario.

I want to rule myself and nobody else, it´s that simple. I want to be free. This is often described as Libertarianism, but I think another very good term to describe this concept would be `autocracy,´ but unfortunately this term has been used to describe "a system of government in which a supreme power is concentrated in the hands of one person." (* (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocracy))

Technically, I don´t think that makes a lot of sense, because auto (=self) and cracy (=rule) should refer to ruling oneself, not ruling over others single-handedly. Just like automobile refers to something with which you are moving yourself, not everyone else. (That is, if you don´t have demanding friends, kids, or grandchildren.)

:offtopic:

Automobile is a really strange compound word, by the way, cause it´s both Greek and Latin. Fully Greek it should be autokinet, fully Latin it should be ipsomobile, or something similar.

[christian]

Earth centered computerized decision making has to be the way forward.

How about life-centered, or even better, love-centered? :)

Which leads to the question, how will we teach love to a computer...

:wink:

[Etherios]

Well Democracy isnt the best but with a few very basic and logical points you can make it work the best.

1st have as the US some basic unchanged rules ...
2nd Educate the people and make them be part of the society so their choices are for the good of the many ...
3rd Vote for almost everything and have true majority not 20-25% of the people.
4th No parties no Leaders no crazy paychecks (like in ancient greece ... the government wasnt getting paid ... being elected was a priviledge but also a service to the city state)
5th The economics of all the elected people should be open for all to see BUT during their time (1 year tops) they will be supported by the society for all their needs.
6th Before they leave office each term (even if they are reelected ... they will have to explain what was their work result ... how much they spend where etc) 1 year terms not more


Well i think i messed this up but with all the above and maybe some more ... we will have people that are proper leading us and they will be there to execute what we tell them or propose laws for us to vote on nothing more ...

BUT thats an illusion ... cause the majority of the people dont care or dont have time to care cause they have to survive. Most people cant read/understand the complicated language on the "official" papers ... the fake democracies of today is just that fake.
There is NO COUNTRY that has ANY KIND of democracy atm. Voting 1 time every 4 or 5 years to elect people that take orders from their own party and have to obey else they get kicked or voting for a parliament that is immune to the law of the country isnt a democracy.

What we have is OLIGARCHY ... and the worse kind ... closed / controlled and immune from any society effects.

Prime example of this is Greece. We are like this atm cause the governments did mistakes (lets not talk what they did wrong) ... NOT EVEN 1 PERSON in the last 2-3 governments got sued or generally punished for the economic disaster in Greece. The media said those that didnt get voted to the parliament got punished by the people o.O. So not getting voted is a punishment???? WTF are they part of the parliament for life and we punish them with exile?

end of rant sorry :-(

[Mike Gorman]

Like all political solutions, and let us be perfectly clear here, all organized behavior on planet Earth is about Power, which groups wield the most power.
this has been an organic feature of Tribes, Villages, Towns Cities, right up to Countries-we can dress up our systems to appear as if choices are possible,
and that votes are significant-but in the end the groups possessing the means to produce consistent wealth call the shots-this was the case in ancient Greece also
where 'Democracy' originates-this was Rule by Aristocrats in essence, wealthy free Men in the city state voted among themselves-nah, we just have varying degrees
of authoritarianism---have done always, and it looks as if it is here to stay a good long while yet.

[Rosieposie]

I have thought a fair bit about the power systems on this planet, haven't come up with anything majorly helpful though lol.

I think power is a part of being human, I've been giving much thought to this and although I'm not entirely sure about this but here is where I am atm with my understanding of it (could change overnight though so don't hold me to it!) I am currently thinking that humans are blessed with strong male vs female energies this gives us all (we have both forces within us) the ability to call forth creation from the female energies and the ability to direct it from the male energies. Because of the strength of these two forces we are very easily unbalanced which makes it both a blessing (we have larger creation potentials) and a curse (larger destruction potentials) and separates us in a sense from other species who are naturally more balanced. So I used to think power was a bad thing as it's so easily mismanaged but now I'm starting to see it as the natural counterpart sort of the sun and the earth relationship which creates life. The issue is when it becomes broken from it's natural counterpart, the heart or love. Both forces seem blind without one another.

Anyway I think it will be interesting to see how we structure our societies in the future, my only real input being atm is that we need leaders that are balanced between power and love. They must guide from a place of kindness, most people just want to live and follow their inner paths and we don't want a society that steps in the way of that however I do think humanity naturally seeks some form of structure. I guess good leaders could do a lot of good by reflecting positive traits and healing into the world atm and setting standards. Basically we need guides not rulers lol how we decide and get the right people into the job is up for debate but I'm not sure democracy allows a natural leader to end up where they should be currently, it needs to be worked on. Or we could look into direct democracy, who knows many potentials :D

[risveglio]

Direct democracy would just lead to the majority enslaving the minority or as said above two wolves and one sheep. Can someone explain to me why we need leaders? This is the thing that I have the hardest time understanding. Religions warn against leaders, our history shows we should not have leaders, some of the greatest philosophical writers have told us we should not have leaders? Why do we need leaders again?

Why not temporary captains? When a city town decides they need a new community building to put the waste generated from the towns free energy device, they can choose the person with the best experience to lead that project. We have some great examples of places that ran fine without leaders. The US west before expansion, Colonial Pennsylvania, the Iroquois Confederation, and plenty of others.

As this article says, “The need for a leader” is a hoax

http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/ciencia/ciencia_consciousuniverse68.htm

"It will be a leaderless society in due time. When this happens, governments will fall and our entire societal structure will change. It will be both painful and beautiful at the same time, for every last person on earth will own their sovereignty and freedom. "

[naste.de.lumina]

Democracy is when I have the power.
When you have power, it is dictatorship.

[Robin]

Personally, I do not think that humanity has had a fair shot to show it's true self and what it is capable of.

If we release ourselves from this damn Reptilian influence once and for all, maybe the shining aspects of a Democratic Republic will show through!!

No, the U.S. Constitution is not perfect. But I believe that this is a template that was guided to us by ET civilizations who have a peaceful existence.

Once humanity shakes off this Reptilian influence, then we'll see corruption disappear and hide in a corner, and the utmost fortitude of the U.S. Constitution will shine through.

All because of Alexander Hamilton and his Illuminati connection. It was him that poisoned the U.S. Constitution all those years ago. One bad seed is all it takes.

[johnf]

Democracy is one isolated approach to large groups of people living together.
There is a diversity of possible approaches to this part of life.
The social illusion down through the ages (as we know them) is that we need to pick ONE of these approaches, instead of acting appropriately to the real situation at hand.

This idea is similar to the idea of monoculture it is good for the rulers or for big agribusiness, not the farmer or ethical citizen.

Short of having a highly ethical, equally educated populace, perhaps we are stuck with having to pick one tool for all purposes.

I couldn't find the quote, but it was something to the effect of democracy works well for the oligarchy, not for the people. I know more about polyculture vs monoculture, so I put it in those terms.

jf