Democracy

Democracy is a word that gets used a lot in politics. It gets abused a lot too. It comes from the Greek and means the rule of the people. It is an unusual system but one that works well under the right conditions. Many countries have representative democracy which is very different.

Democracy was invented in Athens and  tried in Athens. It worked. Then they gave up on it. It is also used in Switzerland. If citizens want to change the law they have a referendum and the results are binding. They also have rifles at home so that they can protect themselves from enemies without and enemies within. The latter are more dangerous.

The virtue of real democracy is that people make the rules that they live by. If they do not like them they can change them. If they want more regulation they can vote for it. If they want less it is up to them. If the system is subverted by corrupt politicians they have weapons to protect themselves.

Democracy can be destroyed by three  methods. Invasion by the enemy without works. The more subtle approaches are used by the enemy within. They use treachery and propaganda. They work too. provided that the people have been disarmed on some pretext. Both are being used in England now. Treachery comes through representative democracy.  With it the representatives can be chosen and controlled so that they no longer represent the people who voted for them.  Does anyone seriously believe that the two and a half main parties in England represent our interests?  One should seriously wonder whether our ruling class represents British interests or those of foreign powers.

Propaganda is given out by the main stream media and is  very powerful. We are told that Goering believed in The Big Lie. Media magnates certainly do and with some justice. Newspapers feed us irrelevancies and cover up important issues. Bread and circuses - that was the Roman maxim. It is still valid and it is being used now. Culture Wars has something on the problem.

Any politician and party which does not offer democracy should be regarded with suspicion. Here is a view from some one else:-

 

CITIZENS' INITIATIVE I&R
Is a good idea, one whose time has come. If people want a referendum on something in Switzerland and they get enough signatures, a referendum is held and it has legal force. Representative democracy, the sort we have in England has been scientifically perverted. It is de facto dictatorship. Find out how to make England a better place. Or read the next one.

 

Active Politics
Democracy is about making the voice of the people heard. Here are some sensible thoughts on being effective.

 

This little essay got its inspiration from Charlotte. Her questions made me think about the basics of good government.

Democracy And Greece
QUOTE
In what sense can they [ the current inmates of Greece ] be regarded as the legitimate heirs of the ancient Greeks? Not, I think, in the genetic sense. We have no reliable demographic evidence from antiquity, but after the wars of the century around Alexander the Great, the populations of mainland Greece seem to have gone into a steady decline that lasted for a thousand years. By around the time of Christ, the depopulation of the old city states was a matter of general comment by those who lived there and of Roman visitors. It is described in a letter to Cicero. It is implied in an inscription that Nero had placed on the Parthenon. Plutarch ascribes the progressive silencing of the Greek oracles to the diminished need for their services. The great plague of 542 reduced populations right across the Mediterranean world, and would have reduced that of mainland Greece still further. Long before that, however, the majority of those living there might well have been descended less from the nation of Pericles and Demosthenes than from imported slaves and barbarian invaders. Certainly, in the two centuries of disorder that followed the great plague, the territory was almost wholly lost to the Byzantine State. When finally reconquered from the Slavs, it had to be rehellenised from Constantinople........

When Lord Elgin arrived in Athens, perhaps half the population was Moslem—and probably not all of these were Greek converts. Certainly, modern Greece as I have seen it is occupied by a rich ethnic mix that embraces every human shade from Nordic blonde to Moorish brown. Athens itself was largely colonised after the population transfers of the 1920s by Asiatics whose claim to a Greek ethnic connection is less well founded than that of the West Indies blacks to an English connection..........

Nor in the cultural sense are the modern inhabitants of Greece Greek......... Turning to wider differences, the religion of the modern Greeks is that of the Byzantine Church, and the tendency of this, unlike that of the Roman, has been to degrade the intellect..... No wonder the modern Greeks are such happy members of the European Union. Not only does it now hand over "project funding" faster than even they can embezzle it, but it also relieves them from all the trouble of thinking for themselves about politics and economics. No wonder so many of the clever Greeks simply get out of the country.
UNQUOTE
We know that democracy and other good things originated in Greece from Greeks. Doctor Gabb explains en passant why Greece is now a loss to civilization. We are being degraded by a flood of immigrants just as they were.

Errors & omissions, broken links, cock ups, over-emphasis, malice [ real or imaginary ] or whatever; if you find any I am open to comment.

Email me at Mike Emery. All financial contributions are cheerfully accepted. If you want to keep it private, use my PGP key.  Home

Updated  on  Tuesday, 12 October 2010 09:25:45