More Democracy....or less please - the position from the ruling class

[johnny9fingers]

As a continuation of yesterday's post about (ahem) Democracy I direct you to the wiki article on Gerrymandering, especially in the US context. The abuses of democracy are such (and so sophisticated) that to all intents and purposes there may be no such animal: it is a mythical beast, believed in by credulous folk who crave legends and fairy stories, and told to the same impressionable electorate.
This becomes especially poignant when we consider the wars we have fought for Democracy as if it were the best thing imaginable, and the source of all our good.

Sometimes I feel a little reflection and self-examination might be in order before we send in the troops.

No wonder our public education systems are so bad: this sort of "Democracy" can only survive by maintaining the stupidity of the majority of the electorate. First we enfranchise the stupid and the ignorant....then we turn it to our advantage.

I shouldn't really be talking about such things: I'm such a traitor to my class. (Well, me and Gore Vidal and ancient Clodius too: though admittedly, I'm a bit less posh than either of those latter two.) 


edit
For some reason the wiki article won't load. Odd that, I must have screwed up somewhere. The page is here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymander

Comments

[winterlion.livejournal.com]

The US political system has a long and "glorious" history of rigging "democracy" in the favour of whoever can.

I for one am glad I live in a free country. We've got our own stuff going on but our politics tend (seriously) to be more honest than most.

however I ride that with the comment : it's not the politicians' fault that a lot of voters are stupid.
(grumble)