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A Critique of Democracy

Democracy assumes that one group of people have an inherent right to control any smaller group that disagrees with them. This is fundamentally unethical and unjustifiable.

Democracy on a national scale relies on constant threat of state sponsored violence, kidnapping, and extortion in order to enforce and sustain itself. This is an inescapable truth that many choose to ignore, but few would attempt to refute with any sort of factual argument. Even if you are fully aware that your government has used your tax money for illegal or illegitimate purposes, you will still be faced with violent arrest, imprisonment, and state sponsored kidnapping of any children you may have if you refuse to comply with their financial demands. Without threat and use of such tactics, democracy in its current form would cease to exist. It may well be the case that a majority of voters support such actions, but that serves no purpose in attempting to ethically legitimize them. Violent aggression is still violent aggression, even if you vote for it democratically.

If anyone reading this would like to refute this point, I challenge you to find a "democracy" anywhere in the world that doesn't officially resort to violence and imprisonment as its default punishment for non-violent non-compliance with requests to fund its existence. By definition, this is extortion, and is the key foundation from which democratic societies are funded.
Democracy by itself offers no protection for minorities, or anyone other than those aligned to the ruling party. In a pure democracy 51% of people could opt to kill the other 49% in gas chambers, as long as they take a vote on it. Remember what you learned as a kid about how two wrongs don't make a right? Well, forget about that if you live in a democracy. Two wrongs will make rights all day long in any truly democratic nation, as long as people are willing to vote. That is the very essence of democracy; mob rule, pack mentality, strength in numbers to oppress those with fewer numbers than you. Fortunately, nations have realized this, and rely on undemocratic constitutions and acts of parliament as backstops. While they never outright admit that democracy would be utterly horrific without wholly undemocratic foundations, in practice it is something that is rarely argued against. This in itself can be seen as strong evidence of the failings of democratic principle.

Democracy on a large scale is in the best interests of no one. Humans are diverse, and have a wide variety of complex preferences and beliefs with regards to how life should be lived. As such, it is unreasonable and unrealistic to assume that there would ever be a situation where 51% of people in an entire nation would agree on the finer points of important public issues such as fiscal planning, health care, education and so on. The result is that in order for any of a person's individual beliefs to be represented, they are forced to sacrifice others to form a collective majority, resulting in what is known as "tactical voting". This is basically a lose-lose scenario, where you are forced to vote for someone that you know from the outset doesn't represent your beliefs, simply for the sake of self preservation and avoidance of worst case scenarios. The practical implications of being the the minority in a democracy are the same as they would be in a dictatorship.

It is a common fallacy that democracy represents individual freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. Democracy is founded on the assumption that you have whatever freedom the voting majority chooses to give you. Historically people have voted to kill or enslave each other with alarmingly high frequency whenever they are given the choice to do so.

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An American judge known for his harsh and autocratic courtroom manner was jailed for 28 years for conspiring with private prisons to hand young offenders maximum sentences in return for kickbacks amounting to millions of dollars.

Mark Ciavarella Jnr was ordered to pay $1.2m (£770,000) in restitution after he was found to be a “figurehead” in the conspiracy that saw thousands of children unjustly punished in the name of profit in the case that became known as “kids for cash”.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has overturned some 4,000 convictions issued by the former Luzerne County judge between 2003 and 2008, claiming he violated the constitutional rights of the juveniles – including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea. Ciavarella Jnr, 61, was tried and convicted of racketeering charges earlier this year but his lawyers had asked for a “reasonable” sentence, claiming that he had already been punished enough.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio — From celebrations to investigations, a number of neighbors are wondering why it took law enforcement so long to rescue Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight and a child at a Cleveland home.One young lady, who didn’t want to be identified, told Fox 8 News that a number of neighbors have called the police about the house several times over the last few years.
“It didn’t look right, and it didn’t feel right,” she said. ”It was boarded up, taped and stuff. It’s not normal when it’s 90 degrees out.”
A sheriff’s deputy guards a Seymour Avenue home where Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight were found alive on Monday. (Photo Credit: Fox 8 News)

Neighbors on Seymour Avenue said kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro’s housealways seemed weird to them, and some children were warned to stay away from it.
The young lady told us there were also unusual sightings and sounds.
She said people who live behind the home, across the street and down the street all called the police about different incidents.
“We ‘seen’ a naked lady in the backyard,” she said. “And we said something to her, and he told her to get down and we said something to him, and he told her to get in the house, and he ran behind the cars.”
She said they reported it Cleveland police but that they didn’t believe her.
Monday evening, the three women and the child were rescued from the property.
Amanda Berry was about 17 when she was abducted while walking home from work 10 years ago. Gina DeJesus was 14 when she was taken a year later. Michelle Knight is the only victim who was taken as an adult.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, Cleveland Director of Public Safety Martin Flask said that they had not identified any calls, complaints or serious problems being reported at the property. However their investigation is on going.
“We’re going to continue to look at all the databases not only from calls being made from that address or about that address, but any calls that made or could’ve been made by residents alleging illegal activity or inappropriate activity accompanied with that home,” said Flask.
But neighbors said they know the truth, and they just wish someone had listened to them.
“If they would’ve taken an extra step to go in the house, they could’ve been home a lot sooner,” said the neighbor.
For extended coverage on this story, click here.

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