Real democracy
As the information driven revolution spreads from autocracy to terrible autocracy, affected countries around the world have to think carefully how they are going to organize for the future. Democracy, an elegant organization principle, has solid credentials of success in systems that are free from other constraints. Secularism, for example, has been a necessary condition for a successful implementation of democracy. Democracy, after all, is a right and not an obligation - an expression of freedom - and it has been fully consistent with capitalism. However, it has not been in sync with prescriptive religious principles that are never a right and always an obligation. Thus, one cannot elect for democracy while holding on to religious principles that are inconsistent.
Even in countries, considered to be the bastions of democracies in the West and the East, there are troubling signs of the state mixing with religion and the predictable decline in the potency of the system. Democracy, by definition, has to provide an environment of freedom that cannot be manipulated by a few – however godly or intelligent – some may think they are. Democracy clearly does not guarantee the best outcome – it provides a higher likelihood of an outcome with least social cost. In the West, tea imbibers and grizzly hunters have been on the hunt posing significant challenges to the fundamental characteristics of democracy, that does not differentiate based on color, creed, religion or location. In the East, where the cast system and the fundamentalists have been battling against the democratic principles from the beginning, there are some positive signs that the youth actually get it. As soon as the senile and the insane are removed from power, the situation will improve.
The information revolution sweeping across the globe is a great opportunity to implement true democracy – one that is not tainted by the opinions of spectacle wearing idiots on TV or ancient and autocratic religious principles, completely inconsistent with modern democracy.
Even in countries, considered to be the bastions of democracies in the West and the East, there are troubling signs of the state mixing with religion and the predictable decline in the potency of the system. Democracy, by definition, has to provide an environment of freedom that cannot be manipulated by a few – however godly or intelligent – some may think they are. Democracy clearly does not guarantee the best outcome – it provides a higher likelihood of an outcome with least social cost. In the West, tea imbibers and grizzly hunters have been on the hunt posing significant challenges to the fundamental characteristics of democracy, that does not differentiate based on color, creed, religion or location. In the East, where the cast system and the fundamentalists have been battling against the democratic principles from the beginning, there are some positive signs that the youth actually get it. As soon as the senile and the insane are removed from power, the situation will improve.
The information revolution sweeping across the globe is a great opportunity to implement true democracy – one that is not tainted by the opinions of spectacle wearing idiots on TV or ancient and autocratic religious principles, completely inconsistent with modern democracy.
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