What is Democracy?

Got A youtube movie i'd like people to think about in relation to common belief democracy is such a great invention, which it is for a different reasons than you think it is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbp6umQT58A

Than if you have a bit more time a longer movie explaining a bit more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k67_imEHTPE

Watch it and write here your toughts.

I didn't watch the videos but I once saw a university lecture from a psychology professor who specialized in "opinion and indignation management" and basically he says democracy is a way to give the common people an illusion of power while actually they have no real influence, he proved it with presenting a couple of studies about it. He also proved how politicians and the media manipulate the herd with the end goal to make them apathetic towards what's happening and how they are very successful at it. Usually you only get this from some conspiracy theorists on youtube but this guy did it scientifically so it was some great insight. I'd link the lecture but it's in German so not sure if it's of any use.

Democracy utilizes the "well it could happen to me so i better conform and play along" card.

That's basically it.

Peace,

-Boem-

I've always liked Churchill's quote on democracy:

"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

Just wanted to link this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Galactic_Heroes

It's an awesome space opera that focuses on Space battles between Democracy and Empire/Monarchy.

This series is really addicting once you've pass 20 episodes.

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ManicCompression wrote:

Just wanted to link this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend_of_the_Galactic_Heroes

It's an awesome space opera that focuses on Space battles between Democracy and Empire/Monarchy.

This series is really addicting once you've pass 20 episodes.

Man.. this is such a fucking classic. Back from the times when anime wasn't just floppy tits and oblivious teenagers.

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pod11 wrote:

What is Democracy?

Democracy is the notion that two wrongs make a right as long as they vote on it. I've written some rants right here in OT about it before.

True democracy is something that rarely happens. A perfect example is the US. Everyone claims "oh we're a democracy, we are the biggest democracy in the world and proof that it works!" when in reality we are a democratic republic with socialist tendencies. I don't think theres an example of pure democracy, much like there isn't a pure Marxist Communism. Theres also a small community in Australia or Austria if I remember correctly (I probably dont, it's been like 4 years since I read the stuff I used in debate) that follows under socialist tendencies but I don't know if it can actually be considered truly socialist. ( I wish I could remember the proffessor I used as the main reference for the case I made in Debate but it's been too long)

E: there was an erroneous "not" in the first sentence which made it mean the opposite of what I meant

My personal opinion is that democracy is very good system in certain situations, for example in smaller communities electing governing people or judges that could be called off by same community it is governing once it is clear they are not up for the task.

In state scale it is just illusion and it just dillutes responsibility.

What is REALY scary for me is societies inability to analize and discuss which is necesary to corret its actions.
For example whenever you try to bring up discussion that socialism has just become excuse to rob people form their work under excuse of redistribution you immediatelly got someone responding hysterically with argument that only goverment can take care of things like education, roads, and whoever opposes ineffective redistribution of money is against education,buiding roads etc in whole.

Whenever anyone brings up concern that unrestricted influx of completely alien culture might cause problems ( and in fact its already causing problems in countries that had been doing it earlier) he gets branded as islamophob, without any regard to facts.

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pod11 wrote:

In state scale it is just illusion and it just dillutes responsibility.

More than that, it pushes ALL the power into the hands of the mass media.

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pod11 wrote:

What is REALY scary for me is societies inability to analize and discuss which is necesary to corret its actions.

Despite the poor form of your message(terrible spelling) i agree with you. We are trapped into viewing politics through the lens presented by the mass media: right wing vs left wing, pro or agianst whatever topic, one party or another. These 'issues' we are presented with are pigeon holed into only having potential solutions which fit the frames set by the media.

Instead of patching a broken system, we need a new more robust system. But to speak of such things is taboo and often times treasonous, invoking attacks from all sides of traditional politics.