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(NaturalNews) Democracy is the worst form of government, Sir Winston
Churchill once said... except for every other form of government. In
other words, all forms of government are atrociously bad, and democracy
may merely be the least bad of the bunch. I certainly wouldn't want to
live under a dictatorship, socialism or communism. So I like the idea of
democracy, and I wish it would work better for America. But it isn't
working. That much is clear. Democracy is failing America, and we can't
just blame it on the politicians and the corporations. People actually vote for their own self-destruction by electing professional liars to represent them.
That's where this article begins.
Why democracy isn't working for America
At its core, the democratic process of electing representatives is a popularity contest. The voters inevitably end up supporting whichever lawmakers offer the best handouts right now, regardless of the long-term consequences to the nation. Voting, in other words, is a contest based on short-term rewards rather than long-term vision. Not surprisingly, when the voters go to the polls, they tend to elect the person who promises them the most right now.
Now, it's crucial to recognize this simple economic fact: No government can offer something to one person without first taking it from another. So the more handouts, entitlements and benefits any government offers, the more it must confiscate from others in order to meet its "obligations" to the voters.
This
creates a downward spiral of entitlements leading to inescapable debt.
Because sooner or later, governments always run out of other people's money.
But that doesn't stop the voting action which still boils down to a popularity contest to decide the leader who tells the best lies.
When given a choice between a realistic candidate who says America is
deep in debt (Ron Paul) and a fantasy-land candidate who says there's
nothing to worry about (almost everybody else), most voters will choose
the fantasy candidate... especially if it means more money in their
pockets.
The right course of action is too unpopular
What's desperately lacking in all this, of course, is the far more important truth that when a nation is in financial trouble (and environmental trouble, health care trouble, etc.), only tough decisions will ever turn it around. And those tough decisions are, by definition, unpopular decisions.
Huh?
We have to consume less? Receive fewer benefits? Pay higher taxes? Make
the wealthy corporations pay their fair share? Say it isn't so...
Not surprisingly, in a free and open democracy, tough, unpopular decisions will almost never be supported by the majority of voters. That's because most people are simply selfish. They are far more concerned about their own immediate benefits than the future they might be handing down to their children or grandchildren. So there is zero willingness to make the tough decisions
necessary to save the country. The voters, in other words, tend to vote
out of their own short-term interests rather than the long-term
viability of the nation as a whole.
That's why democracy is failing America. And that's partly why America is headed toward a near-certain collapse
in the not-too-distant future. A President who tells the truth and says
we have to cut government by 80% to balance the budget is simply not
electable. Too many people have their hands in the cookie jar. Too many
voters depend on the government to send them checks, and far too many
wealthy corporations are entirely dependent on government enforcement of
monopolies and subsidies for their own survival. Big Pharma, for example, would shrink by at least 90% if not for the government's support of the industry.
So electing a President who will actually halt the financial bleeding of America will never happen.
Sure, it might happen in a nation with a highly educated population.
That's why education is so important to the long-term survival of any
nation. But America isn't a highly-educated nation. Probably half of
America's high school graduates can't do basic math. So the concept of
compounded interest on the national debt is simply beyond their
understanding and doesn't seem real to them. They are short-term
consumers because that's the way they've been trained. That's the way
they think. That's the way they calculate. And that's the way they vote.
Think about it: Your average consumer will spend $4 on a pack of two AA batteries when they could spend $10 and get 8 AA batteries
of the exact same brand and capacity. To most consumers, $4 is cheaper
than $10, so they just spend the $4 and don't consider the cost per
battery. People don't do the math! And when they vote, they don't think
it through. They vote based on popularity, not rational thought.
As
a result, America today is a cesspool of lawmakers, Presidents and
bureaucrats who merely weave elaborate lies to feed the public for as
long as they can get away with it. There is hardly a shred of truth left
in anything coming out of Washington D.C. these days. We are so far
beyond the point of actually fixing the problems and turning this
country around that most of the intelligent people are now focused on
getting ready to "ride out the reset."
The dictatorship we definitely don't want
At this point, the only real way to save America's future is to force a set of tough decisions upon the people
by way of a strong dictatorship -- and I am absolutely opposed to such a
thing because it would destroy the few remaining freedoms we still
enjoy today.
You could, of course, try to educate the populace about freedom, fiscal responsibility and the value of long-term strategic thinking
rather than short-term rewards, but that would require an entire
cultural shift spanning at least two generations. Because let's face it,
Americans have been trained in the philosophy of "instant
gratification" for at least two generations. It's all about having more
and having it now. You can't reverse that kind of thinking overnight. You can't reverse instant gratification thinking instantly, in other words.
The end result will be collapse
So what are we left with? There's no way out of this except collapse. Michael Ruppert gets it (www.collapsenet.com). Gerald Celente gets it (www.TrendsResearch.com) . Alex Jones gets it (www.InfoWars.com). But most people don't get it.
In fact, the mainstream short-term thinkers and voters don't get it at all. And the reason they don't get it is because they are the problem
from the start! They're the ones who voted without thinking and elected
professional liars rather than problem solvers. John F. Kennedy was
probably the last President who attempted to actually tell the truth,
and they shot him in the head for asking too many questions about the
Federal Reserve (and other topics). After that moment in history, it has
all been a series of escalating lies to the point where all the
presidents in recent memory are now little more than staged public
relations fictional characters playing a role in the hit comedy TV
series called "America, The Leader of the Free World!"
It's a
comedy series, however... not a reality show. And the mainstream media
is playing the role of the comedy news source in the comedy TV series.
Virtually nothing the media prints about health, the economy or world
news has any basis in fact whatsoever. It is merely the regurgitation of
crafted spin pieces and official deceptions designed to keep the voters
entertained a while longer while the money commanders loot the economy
before the coming collapse.
Lessons to be learned from recent history
Why
does any of this matter? At one level, it doesn't. The collapse of
America has been set in motion, and there's actually very little you or I
can do to stop it. Emailing your congressman or signing a petition is
futile. Even the act of voting is essentially an exercise in supporting a
system of government that's already on life support and nearing its
expiration date. It doesn't really make much difference at this point,
except for local and state elections, of course.
Because the bigger picture here is that the experiment of Democracy has failed
on a grand scale. It's not obvious to everyone yet (because few people
are long-term thinkers), but it soon will be. Democracy doesn't work if
your voters are mostly short-term thinkers who can't do math and whose
selfishness outweighs any sense of leaving something of value for the
next generation.
The American democracy experiment will soon
crash land, and when we're sorting through the wreckage, all the shocked
and bewildered people will be asking, "How could this have happened?
Everything was going along just fine..." But it wasn't just fine. Most
of it was all a Big Lie, and lies have a way of catching up with you.
America's
democracy was a noble concept. And it could have worked if the
population had been better educated and the corporations less greedy
(and the lawmakers less whore-like, I suppose). But today it has failed,
and now it's only a matter of watching it implode and then figuring out
a better solution for creating a more sustainable nation for our collective future.
Perhaps it's time we threw away the idea of voters electing "representatives" in its totality and instead created a nation of sovereign citizens
who operate from a completely different mindset. Who says we need a
federal government at all? Wouldn't most of us be freer, healthier,
wealthier and happier if the federal government didn't even exist? Sure,
we need a national defense but even that could be coordinated by the states.
Remember,
the "United States" means a group of states who are united in their
intentions. It does not mean a federal tyrant that overrules the states.
The "United States" of America is supposed to be a system of agreement
and open trade among fifty sovereign geopolitical entities, not one
oppressive system that demands compliance with its corrupt, power-hungry
agenda.
These are some of the issues people will no doubt be pondering when the current experiment in democracy implodes.
Don't
be surprised when that day comes, of course. It's already past the
point of no return. Be ready to take part in the discussions of what I
call The Next Society that will inevitably be born out of the
coming collapse. And hopefully we can figure out a way to improve on the
concept of "democracy" for a brighter (and freer) future.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032346_democracy_America.html#ixzz1Lx7p0ovG
Churchill once said... except for every other form of government. In
other words, all forms of government are atrociously bad, and democracy
may merely be the least bad of the bunch. I certainly wouldn't want to
live under a dictatorship, socialism or communism. So I like the idea of
democracy, and I wish it would work better for America. But it isn't
working. That much is clear. Democracy is failing America, and we can't
just blame it on the politicians and the corporations. People actually vote for their own self-destruction by electing professional liars to represent them.
That's where this article begins.
Why democracy isn't working for America
At its core, the democratic process of electing representatives is a popularity contest. The voters inevitably end up supporting whichever lawmakers offer the best handouts right now, regardless of the long-term consequences to the nation. Voting, in other words, is a contest based on short-term rewards rather than long-term vision. Not surprisingly, when the voters go to the polls, they tend to elect the person who promises them the most right now.
Now, it's crucial to recognize this simple economic fact: No government can offer something to one person without first taking it from another. So the more handouts, entitlements and benefits any government offers, the more it must confiscate from others in order to meet its "obligations" to the voters.
This
creates a downward spiral of entitlements leading to inescapable debt.
Because sooner or later, governments always run out of other people's money.
But that doesn't stop the voting action which still boils down to a popularity contest to decide the leader who tells the best lies.
When given a choice between a realistic candidate who says America is
deep in debt (Ron Paul) and a fantasy-land candidate who says there's
nothing to worry about (almost everybody else), most voters will choose
the fantasy candidate... especially if it means more money in their
pockets.
The right course of action is too unpopular
What's desperately lacking in all this, of course, is the far more important truth that when a nation is in financial trouble (and environmental trouble, health care trouble, etc.), only tough decisions will ever turn it around. And those tough decisions are, by definition, unpopular decisions.
Huh?
We have to consume less? Receive fewer benefits? Pay higher taxes? Make
the wealthy corporations pay their fair share? Say it isn't so...
Not surprisingly, in a free and open democracy, tough, unpopular decisions will almost never be supported by the majority of voters. That's because most people are simply selfish. They are far more concerned about their own immediate benefits than the future they might be handing down to their children or grandchildren. So there is zero willingness to make the tough decisions
necessary to save the country. The voters, in other words, tend to vote
out of their own short-term interests rather than the long-term
viability of the nation as a whole.
That's why democracy is failing America. And that's partly why America is headed toward a near-certain collapse
in the not-too-distant future. A President who tells the truth and says
we have to cut government by 80% to balance the budget is simply not
electable. Too many people have their hands in the cookie jar. Too many
voters depend on the government to send them checks, and far too many
wealthy corporations are entirely dependent on government enforcement of
monopolies and subsidies for their own survival. Big Pharma, for example, would shrink by at least 90% if not for the government's support of the industry.
So electing a President who will actually halt the financial bleeding of America will never happen.
Sure, it might happen in a nation with a highly educated population.
That's why education is so important to the long-term survival of any
nation. But America isn't a highly-educated nation. Probably half of
America's high school graduates can't do basic math. So the concept of
compounded interest on the national debt is simply beyond their
understanding and doesn't seem real to them. They are short-term
consumers because that's the way they've been trained. That's the way
they think. That's the way they calculate. And that's the way they vote.
Think about it: Your average consumer will spend $4 on a pack of two AA batteries when they could spend $10 and get 8 AA batteries
of the exact same brand and capacity. To most consumers, $4 is cheaper
than $10, so they just spend the $4 and don't consider the cost per
battery. People don't do the math! And when they vote, they don't think
it through. They vote based on popularity, not rational thought.
As
a result, America today is a cesspool of lawmakers, Presidents and
bureaucrats who merely weave elaborate lies to feed the public for as
long as they can get away with it. There is hardly a shred of truth left
in anything coming out of Washington D.C. these days. We are so far
beyond the point of actually fixing the problems and turning this
country around that most of the intelligent people are now focused on
getting ready to "ride out the reset."
The dictatorship we definitely don't want
At this point, the only real way to save America's future is to force a set of tough decisions upon the people
by way of a strong dictatorship -- and I am absolutely opposed to such a
thing because it would destroy the few remaining freedoms we still
enjoy today.
You could, of course, try to educate the populace about freedom, fiscal responsibility and the value of long-term strategic thinking
rather than short-term rewards, but that would require an entire
cultural shift spanning at least two generations. Because let's face it,
Americans have been trained in the philosophy of "instant
gratification" for at least two generations. It's all about having more
and having it now. You can't reverse that kind of thinking overnight. You can't reverse instant gratification thinking instantly, in other words.
The end result will be collapse
So what are we left with? There's no way out of this except collapse. Michael Ruppert gets it (www.collapsenet.com). Gerald Celente gets it (www.TrendsResearch.com) . Alex Jones gets it (www.InfoWars.com). But most people don't get it.
In fact, the mainstream short-term thinkers and voters don't get it at all. And the reason they don't get it is because they are the problem
from the start! They're the ones who voted without thinking and elected
professional liars rather than problem solvers. John F. Kennedy was
probably the last President who attempted to actually tell the truth,
and they shot him in the head for asking too many questions about the
Federal Reserve (and other topics). After that moment in history, it has
all been a series of escalating lies to the point where all the
presidents in recent memory are now little more than staged public
relations fictional characters playing a role in the hit comedy TV
series called "America, The Leader of the Free World!"
It's a
comedy series, however... not a reality show. And the mainstream media
is playing the role of the comedy news source in the comedy TV series.
Virtually nothing the media prints about health, the economy or world
news has any basis in fact whatsoever. It is merely the regurgitation of
crafted spin pieces and official deceptions designed to keep the voters
entertained a while longer while the money commanders loot the economy
before the coming collapse.
Lessons to be learned from recent history
Why
does any of this matter? At one level, it doesn't. The collapse of
America has been set in motion, and there's actually very little you or I
can do to stop it. Emailing your congressman or signing a petition is
futile. Even the act of voting is essentially an exercise in supporting a
system of government that's already on life support and nearing its
expiration date. It doesn't really make much difference at this point,
except for local and state elections, of course.
Because the bigger picture here is that the experiment of Democracy has failed
on a grand scale. It's not obvious to everyone yet (because few people
are long-term thinkers), but it soon will be. Democracy doesn't work if
your voters are mostly short-term thinkers who can't do math and whose
selfishness outweighs any sense of leaving something of value for the
next generation.
The American democracy experiment will soon
crash land, and when we're sorting through the wreckage, all the shocked
and bewildered people will be asking, "How could this have happened?
Everything was going along just fine..." But it wasn't just fine. Most
of it was all a Big Lie, and lies have a way of catching up with you.
America's
democracy was a noble concept. And it could have worked if the
population had been better educated and the corporations less greedy
(and the lawmakers less whore-like, I suppose). But today it has failed,
and now it's only a matter of watching it implode and then figuring out
a better solution for creating a more sustainable nation for our collective future.
Perhaps it's time we threw away the idea of voters electing "representatives" in its totality and instead created a nation of sovereign citizens
who operate from a completely different mindset. Who says we need a
federal government at all? Wouldn't most of us be freer, healthier,
wealthier and happier if the federal government didn't even exist? Sure,
we need a national defense but even that could be coordinated by the states.
Remember,
the "United States" means a group of states who are united in their
intentions. It does not mean a federal tyrant that overrules the states.
The "United States" of America is supposed to be a system of agreement
and open trade among fifty sovereign geopolitical entities, not one
oppressive system that demands compliance with its corrupt, power-hungry
agenda.
These are some of the issues people will no doubt be pondering when the current experiment in democracy implodes.
Don't
be surprised when that day comes, of course. It's already past the
point of no return. Be ready to take part in the discussions of what I
call The Next Society that will inevitably be born out of the
coming collapse. And hopefully we can figure out a way to improve on the
concept of "democracy" for a brighter (and freer) future.
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/032346_democracy_America.html#ixzz1Lx7p0ovG
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