(no subject)

I know this will probably unmask me as “anti-democratic”, but hear me out before beginning to contact your friends and begin research into sourcing tar and feathers.

I am not certain we are a democracy anymore.  

Oh, granted, there are elections that we suffer through, and we all seem to enjoy the “two minute hates” that the media offers us, but I am not at all certain that there is a significant connection between the trappings of what is offered as “democracy” actually fits the bill anymore.

Now this isn’t part of a malevolent plot by some supranational conspiracy.  The clown show at Davos isn’t going to take away our rights and force us to eat gruel.  In a sense, they are the most honest in their intents and probably the most accurate in their appraisals of the situation facing us.  They are just warning us about the shitshow that is coming our way and informing us that they are taking measures to minimize the impact.  Fair enough.

It doesn’t mean that I am especially fond of the idea.  It is just that the system didn’t scale well.  Democracy is a good system for a primarily rural-agrarian life with a low overall population density.  In my mind, it can have some population centers and can have industry, but as these come into play within an advancing civilization, democracy becomes more and difficult.  Unfortunately we are past the point where democracy itself cannot maintain the institutions required to maintain itself.  The institutions themselves become the focus of government rather than the citizens.

I am not pissed off about this.  But I am most certainly not happy about it either.  A single voice in an ocean of three hundred some odd million voices is not significant.

I suppose that I am in the lonely task of pursuing Aristotle’s eudaimonia and overall I feel that I am succeeding.  What I am realizing is that whoever infects the area surrounding the Washington Mall really doesn’t care about me and I should return the favor.

I really don’t know where things go from here.  I just am trying to figure out how to stay out of the way.