Suicide of Democracy

Recently, I posted a quote from John Adams about how Democracy always commits suicide.  I feel the need to clarify why I posted it.  I’m not happy about the John Adams quote.  It saddens me because democracy is the only human system that can facilitate human freedom.

I don’t believe that democracy has to end in Suicide.  But it, along with any other system, dies when people are only concerned about “self.”  Self-absorbed human beings have always poisoned the world throughout history.  It’s like children who never matured to understand that it is better to give than receive.  It is bad enough in daily dealings with people, but when political leaders behave selfishly, it spreads like the black plague and catalyzes the suicide of a nation, of an ideal, of a supreme truth, that all human beings are created equal and have inalienable rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  And let me add, pursuit of happiness as long as it doesn’t blow up your neighbor or “steal from a neighbor for the good of the society” or “invade the sanctity of a neighbor’s privacy”.

Democracy is the only human system that provides a chance for true human freedom because it is the only system that is not inherently dominated by fear.  All other systems are about control and fear, manipulation and insincerity.  Fear only produces cowards or hypocrites.  No human ever made a reliable decision based on fear.  Not for fear of the law or government.  Not for fear of a god or prophet, not for fear of some alarming natural disaster or adverse climate.  Not one person can have integrity under fear.  And, what does that tell you about those who promote fear?

In addition, nothing even comes close to Democracy because it is designed with accountability.  Who, in their right mind, wants to put all of their decisions into the hands of other people who have no accountability?  Government is simply people.  People are flawed, wretchedly selfish, and prideful.  Why do people line up so willingly to vote their power away to selfish, self-congratulating pricks?  John Adams puts it a little more civilly, “The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are no keepers at all; they can neither judge, act, think, or will, as a political body.”

One step toward suicide is giving away (or letting it be taken away) our ability to decide what is right and wrong.  In essence morality is not a governmental issue.  Neither are a lot of other issues.  Public Justice, Foreign defense and making sure that we have damn good roads to drive on are what government should be about.  They should be serving their people, not enslaving them with taxes that, at their best, pay for government programs that are counterproductive and are bankrupting the country.  Why in the hell do 3^rd generation welfare recipients need a free phone?  Why is the working American paying for them, I should say?

At their worst, Governments just lie and cheat and line their pockets with middleclass money.  Politicians, particularly, the more liberal ones, scoff at the rich.  Are you kidding me?  They are “the rich”.  And we fools keep putting them in place and let them abuse us repeatedly.

Elected officials shouldn’t even get a salary.  Let them have a fixed income that will just pay their bills while they serve.  Maybe they’ll get the hell out of Washington in 2 to 4 years.  They should have to use Social Security instead of stealing America’s money out of social security and then setting up their own retirement fund.  Politicians should not receive any type of retirement.  Elected politicians should not even be a career.  I’m no historian, but I believe it was designed to be like a tour of duty or jury duty, not a place where people can set up their fat asses and suck our country dry until they die of decadence.  Get in, serve, and get out.  Otherwise you lead us to the breaking point.

People are so caught up in causes like corporate greed and corporate corruption, rightly so.  Greed corruption should always be confronted, but why be hypocritical?  The same social activists typically want the government to do something about it.  That’s like asking Satan for help in order to defeat Charles Manson.  The government is the greediest and most corrupt of all the corporations that have ever existed.  And what’s worse is that they can manipulate the law of the land to guarantee the their greed stays intact.  No one holds them accountable.  It’s like the 35 Czars that Obama has put in place.  Not much is really known about what they do.  And they are not accountable to the American people.  Yes, some are accountable to Obama.  That’s like making John Dillinger accountable to Al Capone.  It is un-American.  It’s one aspect that is killing my country.

Another example of decadence is government agencies.  We elect politicians (at least I think we do).  Then they give their legislative power away to an agency that is not accountable to the American people.  That too, is un-American.  Maybe un-American is not the right term.  It’s just not right.  No human being should be subject to other human beings that have no accountability.  There must be checks and balances.  One check and balance is that Government should be as small as a pea.  As Henry David Thoreau says, "That government is best which governs least" - "That government is best which governs not at all.”

If we must have government, democracy is the least obtrusive, in theory.  The only exception is when men lose their way and their corrupt hearts get the better of them.  Then, even democracy breaks down.  John Adams had it right when he said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.”  For quite a while now, we have been in the “any other” category.

My concern is not failing of Democracy.  I believe in Democracy.  My concern is that it is failing do to immoral and selfish men.  We do not have anything but ‘Avarice, ambition, revenge and gallantry’ to guide our country.  Forget country, our human hearts are the issue.  Are hearts are cold because our minds have been deceived.  Many have let Nihilism and relativism deceive them.  It is imperative that people realize what is at the root of their thinking.  As you track down the source, you don’t want to get to the end of your rope and find that it is tied to the wind.  A country made of people who have no foundation will inevitably commit suicide.

Simply put, “who says?”  Who has the authority to determine what is right and wrong?  It is certainly not a government, i.e. other human beings with the delusion that they know better.

Once again, John Adams: “In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.”  Or, in our time, this quote can apply to capital hill, a conglomeration of immoral men.

Until next time...