Well getting over my late-night rambling from the last post, I
think I'll pick a lighter topic. The failure of Democracy.
Well first I'll make clear that I'm not actually advocating major
social change, I don't know of anything better that the society I
know could change into, just pointing out a failing that _might_
become more exposed in the near future. This will also be one of my
quick posts (19min deadline and counting), so forgive the vague
examples and poor writing.
The the problems of capitalism and democracy in recent decades have
been quite visible where it has been applied in countries
previously under dictatorships. In particular when you look at
countries such as Iraq where there were ancient divides in social
structure. Such dicatorships were able to, probably for ease of
maintaining their own position, manage the social inbalances in
their communities. Sure this could be through ruthless brutality,
but it maintained a functioning society nevertheless. Since
"liberation" and a democratic leadership, the divides within the
society have been less restrained, fueling anger amongst
minorities, leading to radicalisation.
Also minorities such as native people in Russia were in some cases
better off under the Communist leadership where they received a
regular income in return for raising livestock, rather than having
to fit their traditional lifestyle to a sufficiently competative
and profitable business model. Of course older and bolder examples
can be found in the rise of european fascism prior to WWII.
Democracy works in favour of the majority, but therefore only
achieves stability if the corresponding unrepresented minorities
are not so far divided from those in power. Otherwise the power of
one group dominates over the other. The attrocities commited
recently in Burma by a popularist governement are another example.
Oh boy this post is a mess, I didn't have time to take on this
topic, and I'm 5min overtime. Anyway, the point that I'm getting to
is that with traditional media becoming under-funded and less
diverse - replaced by social media that breeds and normalises a
cult-like following of people, groups, and beleifs - the divides in
western democracies seem to be growing wider. The influences that
have kept their populations like-minded enough to maintain a
government that isn't unrestrained in support or hostility towards
one social group, are being restructured. Time will tell whether
our democracies can survive this new social structure that might be
breeding within them.
