Democracy is boring. It involves discussing things in representative assemblies – aka ‘talking shops’; it means compromises – aka ‘fudging things’; it involves not always getting what you want – aka ‘selling out’. By the nature of these processes, things tend not to happen swiftly, and sometimes they seem not to happen at all. In times of prosperity all of these things are made bearable by material well-being; in times of austerity it is not so. Aristophanes, in his play, The Knights, makes great play of the way in which Agoracritus, the Sausage-seller, is able to outbid the aristocratic Cleon to win the support of the demos – who are easily swayed by the promise of material rewards. One of the many good effects of the Christianisation of our culture was the notion that even absolute monarchs were responsible to someone; from that grew the idea that people were more than pawns to be sacrificed at will. That isn’t to say that these ideas were always followed through – but it is to say they were there and have had important effects. But now, across the world, it seems that we see a coarsening of our politics.
It isn’t just the most egregious examples, such as Putin and Assad – men like that have always been there; but if hypocrisy is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, there is something disturbing in the fact that neither man any long feels it necessary to pay up. It is what we see in countries where, hithertofore, it has been taken for granted that people were attached to democracy. Troublesome times often lead to the cry for a ‘strong man’, a man on a white horse. Mussolini and Hitler both served that purpose, as did Lenin and Stalin – these were leaders who promised to cut through the useless talking shops to ‘get things done’. But once go down that road, and there is no limiting what ‘can be done’ – demagogues and dictators have in common the ability to by-pass normal process in the cause of some higher good. When we get, as we did in the UK, intelligent men saying we have had ‘enough of experts’, and when we begin to move into a fact-free politics, the warning bells begin to sound.
If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, that applies internally as much as it does externally. If free men and women do not insist upon protecting their freedoms, they cannot (alas) expect politicians to do it for them. The USA was founded in part on the model of the Roman Republic, and that entailed an engaged citizenry who would, if necessary, resort to arms to protect the freedoms guaranteed under law. In the UK and Europe there is little understanding of the Second Amendment; but there are many in the USA who understand it only too well – including those who wish to abolish it.
Will democracy in its current form survive? Arguably its current form is already less than optimal, in so far as vested interests and lobbyists like parasitically off the body politic. The old notion of the common good is vitiated and undermined by the modern fad for ‘identity politics’. The inability of our governments to continue to deliver the prosperity the demos demands leaves open the way for the sausage-sellers to bribe people with their own money. We might say that the centre cannot hold – except I am unsure whether there is, any longer, a centre. Christian ethics helped impose upon errant mankind a set of rules and obligations which raised it above the level to which its fallen nature leads it to sink left unaided. With that gone, and with the chaser tone we now hear, all bets are off.
Arguably one of the features of recent trends, though, is that people are consciously voting against their immediate material interests in favour of what they conceive to be a greater good. Green voters have long been doing this and now part of the appeal of the populist Right lies in saying that preserving or recreating authentic communities is more important than the economic prosperity which free movement promises.
It may well be that this is a snare and a delusion, forbye which it is still a minority practice. Nonetheless it does serve as a sign that materialism is not the only show in town and that a well presented case rooted in something other than a desire for more stuff could gain traction. *All* that it needs is for enough people to make the case for virtue with more passion and conviction than the advocates of vice currently deploy.
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What a very interesting point.
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Very interesting indeed. And what I’m reading recently in both our countries, makes me think there is something in it. Not all, maybe not even a majority, but I do think this is motivating some.
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Interesting to see you bring in Athens and Rome: I like that you see the Christianisation of Europe and the USA as an improvement on those models. The polis model to which so much (but not all) of Hellas clung relied on people knowing each other and regularly engaging with each other not only in the market-place but in civic contexts: the Ekklesia, the Boule, the Panathenaia, the Prytaneion, the Courts. Our societies have become too large for that to be practical in all affairs, but I do believe the Greek model highlights the degradation of our local politics, for which we are all in part responsible. Who really knows their local counsellor? But so much still is in the hands of local government.
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Well, I started to comment here, and it grew far too long, so I drafted an article, and then it wasn’t all that good a fit here, so I published it on NEO. It is here”
https://nebraskaenergyobserver.wordpress.com/2016/09/21/trying-to-form-a-more-perfect-union/
in case anyone else is interested.
And excellent article, C! 🙂
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Thank you – and I’d reccomend anyone interested to read your piece.
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Thank you, as well. 🙂
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Nice tio spark off some interesting thoughts.
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It is, happens too rarely anymore.
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A strong man to lead us. Well peoples of Europe have tried that a few times. That kind of stuff could never happen again in our modern society.
Here in America, the slack jawed leaders have allowed south americans and others to just pour into here illegally at will and by the billions. They form mafia style gangs and reek havoc and kill and torture and loot. If things get tough, they just slide back over the border. The Mexican govt doesn’t care. They are busy counting the drug money they get from America.
The need for a strong man to take control of the situation is what is needed here in the US. The need for a strong man in that worn out tired old Europe is on the rise. Europe isn’t a nice old tourist trap anymore, where we can go and relax and see how nice and quaint this old country is. Its filled with dog faced muslim animals. We here in the US need a strong man in the govt to say “No, we don’t want those animals here”
The world will be screaming for a strong man any day now. Maybe the people of the earth aren’t quite aware that they all share the need for a common leader. We are still arresting criminals from the last strong man good brother Hitler. People really don’t want a repeat. But so what? People seem to be geared to be led by the nose.There are 1.2 billion people who belong to some idiot cult of personality that are led by one man in some ridiculous costume. And they even go so far as to say hes gods ambassador to mankind.
Will a future even make humankind all feel the need for a common strong man, not just one for their state, but one for the entire globe?
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I’m not sure this argument entirely coheres, but I see what you’re saying and agree.
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