Oh, this isn’t communist China? Really? That’s adorable. What did you think democracy is—some shimmering cathedral of freedom and reason? Think again. Democracy is simply the tyranny of the majority dressed up in comforting rituals, and that majority is produced, curated, and manipulated by electoral systems designed and refined by those who profit from them: political parties. I don’t even blame them. They behave exactly as you would expect any power-hungry organism to behave—gaming, twisting, scheming, doing whatever it takes to maintain control. It’s their nature.
I don’t particularly blame voters either. I gave up on that illusion long ago. The average voter barely thinks beyond the weekend—and that’s me being charitable. Their attention span for public matters extends no further than the latest shiny promise hurled at them during campaign season. It has never been different. Human nature hasn’t evolved because someone invented ballots and bunting.
Athenian democracy shattered on the naïve assumption that the masses would consistently choose what is wise, disciplined, and beneficial over whatever flatters their vanity in the moment. They were wrong. Every idealist since has been wrong in exactly the same way. Democracy is a lousy system for running a state—but the terrifying part is that it might genuinely be the best we’ve managed so far. If that’s true, then your options are brutally simple: live with your eyes wide open and learn to dance with the fallout, or delude yourself and get crushed under the consequences. Those are the terms. No refunds.
