Re: John -- let Mark Blyth explain it to you, then you'll have a better understanding Archived Message
Posted by Tomski on March 23, 2019, 9:20 pm, in reply to "Re: John -- let Mark Blyth explain it to you, then you'll have a better understanding"
Going back centuries one of the great concerns about democracy was the problems relating to the tyrrany of the majority. As most people for most of history haven't owned very much or had an 'interest' in the economy, those, a minority, who did have property and 'interests' where fearful that democracy would mean the majority taking power and wealth away from the ruling elite. Fortunately for them they found various ways of making sure this didn't happen. Hang on DJ, are you saying that because there was a tyranny of the majority of serfs making poor aristocrats feel unsafe, this paranoia forced them to hide their wealth by coming up with a capitalist system? I think there was a bit of struggle between aristos and early capitalists, the latter still considering them as hoi polloi, but the deal was made -ish and now we have the new elite. Today of course we have once again entered the realm of the 'tyrrany of the majority' with Brexit. What about the rights of the minority who don't want to leave the EU? Does a majority in England really have the authority to drag the rest of the UK out with them? What if that slim majority no longer exists? Well yes, we have moved on since the 'good old days' and now we have democracy. You dissent, I take it? Which part of the elite would you prefer as rulers? Secondly we have to look at the complex concept of 'citizenship.' Democracy never meant 'one man one vote.' Democracy was about citzenship from the very beginning. Who had the right to vote in ancient Athens and other Greek city states. That was about 20% of the population of Athens. Women, slaves, the poor, foreigners didn't have a vote, only citizens. What about the close to to million Brits living overseas, many in Europe, that didn't have a vote? For example, me. I wasn't allowed to vote, even though I am a British citizen. Is that fair or even democratic? For one reason or another your preference is that some of the population is disenfranchised so we can go back in time to the original Demokratia with no 'one man one vote'? It would be interesting to see how that transforming would work. You are not allowed to vote, hmm, excuse me ... referencing the Electoral commission, it says ... you must 'be resident at an address in the UK (or a UK citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years)' What is your problem? Then we have to look at 'informed citizenship.' For democracy to function properly one needs an informed group of citizens. The left used to accept this argument, as the lack of an informed electorate explained why so many working class people voted Tory, against their own objective interests, what happened? Just a suggestion: The ruling elite could ensure that all voters have passed 'informed citizenship' exam, and until then they don't vote and the fake news from the media is to be banned. Perhaps we could leave the latter out since just maybe the ruling elite is not out to cut their own throats just yet. That should work. I guess all we can do is hope for the best and try to get the 'right' benevolent elite to rule us. Cheers
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