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This is not a hyperbole, I really do believe this will happen.
Democracy. We are all told it's the ****s and that we should be super thankful to have it. And yet, when I look at the abomination that is current western culture I can't help but think of this quote:
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship."
It's really scary how much this quote applies to our modern western world. People have become so spoiled, disrespectful towards authority, greedy and shortsighted (favoring instant satisfaction over long term goals) that I am starting to lean towards the idea that, as insane as it might sound, actually yes there is a very realistic possibility that democracy in the west will actually collapse, if not within our lifetime then at least within the next 100 or so years.
The basic purpose of an economy is to feed it's people. That is literally the single most important role it plays. It's why human civilization even started at all. People banded together to grow food. What else an economy should do is open to interpretation and is based largely on individual opinion, but most can agree that it should also be responsible for the creation of material goods that people can then enjoy so that they can enjoy increased material prosperity. However, in order for an economy to be healthy it is vital that people do not consume more than they produce, for in doing so they put them self's into debt which in the long term cannot work as a lasting economic policy. How best it is to produce the goods is debatable, but the important thing is that consumption is not greater than production.
Democracy is the idea that the people should be in charge. That if they are not in direct control (direct democracy) that they should at least control who their rulers are. This means different people or parties represent them self's and their views and the people then pick what appeals to them. While it may sound simple enough, in order for this kind of system to work a certain degree of maturity is needed from the voters. They must be able to at least do the fallowing:
1.Be informed about the issues. The voters must have at least a solid understanding about what is going on in society so that they can be informed about what or who they are voting.
2. Note only vote what is best for them just because it's the convenient thing to do even if it's bad for the society as whole. Just because it is temping to support something that is good for only you at that moment in time, that doesn't mean you actually benefit in the long-term of the results of that decision if it also brings unwanted side-affects such as social or economic disorder. This means people must have the maturity to understand when it's needed for them to vote for something that doesn't benefit only them.
3. Be realistic and not only vote the candidates or parties that promise the most. An economy can only produce so much wealth, so it's important that society doesn't consume more than it makes. A voter must be able to understand this when judging different parties and candidates, and that they should not automatically vote for a party or a candidate just because they promise the most.
4. Care more about long-term problems than short-term problems. What does it matter if a person will be able to feed itself tomorrow if that person won't be able to do the same in a month's time? Long-term problems are more important than short-term ones. The voters must understand this in order to make logical decisions.
Unfortunately, the voters don't understand this. Most people can't be bothered to inform them self's about anything. Most people are extremely selfish and will only vote what is good for them. Most people don't care about the economy as a whole and will thus vote mostly for the people who promise the most. And most don't care about the future but only about getting something Right Now! And believe that the end result of this will be the collapse of democracy.
The biggest problem with democracy is that I feel it can only survive in pre-21st century economies in the long term. The reason for this is that while people in all democracies may sometimes behave like fools for a while, at some point when things go into the gutter they get thrown back into reality and have to suffer the cruelty of real life. And if their country isn't very rich then odds are their lives very never easy in the first place. All of this creates a certain form of humility within the people. "Yes I would like to have nice things but the world isn't all fun and games so I must suck it up sometimes" kind of thinking, so to speak.
That is how it works, for a while...
But then society starts getting rich. After a period of capitalism and free markets has passed, society starts swimming in money. And with lots of money comes lots of chances for politicians to buy the voters. This is what started happening on a large scale in the western democracies in the late 20th century and continues to happen today. Now the manner in which people think about the world becomes very different from before. Now because society and many of it's people have become so rich, the temptation to demand a slice of other people's pie becomes much stronger. In addition, the new wealth also makes the creation of a welfare state possible so that people don't have to worry too much. And together, these 2 things greatly exacerbate a couple of things: Self-entitlement, and the lack of individual responsibility.
Now, people begin thinking that since others are making more money they are automatically entitled to this money, and start voting for the politicians offering them this money. And now, people become use to having a welfare state that will always keep them safe if something bad happens, thus making the idea of serious life trouble alien to them, which in return means nobody sees any reason to be careful.
With these 2 things, self-entitlement and the lack of feeling the need to take responsibility for anything, democracy begins to struggle...
As was mentioned earlier, an economy cannot consume more than what it produces. But because of the new rampant greed in the new kind of society that emerges from the 21st style modern liberal capitalist democracy, people stop treating this as a meaningful concern. The voter is happy as long as he is given more stuff, and the politician is happy as long as he is elected for giving more of said stuff. Until the system stops working...
That brings us to my prediction of how the future will unfold. I predict that this process of politicians offering more and more and the voters falling for it will continue, until at some point the state becomes bankrupt and the economy begins to suffer. Once this happen, the voters whom at that point will have become spoiled and stupid, will blame only the politicians and claim that it's all them and their lies fault. In a response, some kind of a direct democracy will emerge from the political chaos that will give the masses even more direct power over governing. This will be hailed as a great social advance and people will be happy about it. Then, with the masses in even more control of the country (and even more unrestrained, since even a politician still needs to care at least a bit about what he is doing if he doesn't want to be expelled from power, while nobody can hold the general public accountable), they will govern it even more greedily and even more incompetently than the politicians in the old political system. The end result, is another economic disaster even more horrible than the last one. This in return, will make the desperate masses willing to listen to anybody who is willing to fix their cluster**** for them, as long as they do it quickly and instantly. This is when anti-democratic demagogues will take the moment and give some vague promises about how everything will be fixed as long as they are given enough power by the masses, who at this point, will be so spoiled, stupid, and impatient that they will just nod their heads and agree. And RIP democracy.
While perhaps not directly related to the fall of democracy, I think this is a very interesting watch about how democracy appears to be not making people that happy which kind of gives power to my argument (I am not calling for dictatorship, I just wanted to link to the video because it mentions how people are unhappy in-spite of their democracies):
I disagree. Even the western countries with partial socialism are failing at steady at rate. Even China 's top leadership isn't satisfied if you look at their corruption investigations of simply cheating on living space conversions. Certainly Hong Kong isn't happy giving up the democracy they have for China's controls even if less restrictive. No in the end; the state control of production and fruits has failed in short period compared to western democracies. In places in the west where they have end up with parties that are too alike that is changing if you pay attention to Europe and which parties are growing . There are reasons why you do not hear as much decent but its not from being happy.
Democracy will die because when the going gets tough, the citizenry will lose faith in "old", "inefficient", "bureaucratic" democratic institutions and look for a quick fix. A messiah of sorts. Like what happened in Germany and Italy not too terribly long ago. Not because of any of this stupid voting for your own money claptrap which has been going since the inception of American democracy (Please don't tell me you're another one of those idiots that think only poor people vote for their own interests and rich people never do.)
Man the sky has been falling for longer than I've been alive. Four decades an it hasn't happened yet.
4 decades is a very short time in human history. Also note the part where I said this process of social and economic decay takes a long ass time and that there is a big difference in the behavior between people living in a pre-modern comfort democracy and a post-modern comfort one. Democracy won't collapse all of the sudden, it will be the result of a very long and a slow decay. Kind of like how Rome fell.
Man the sky has been falling for longer than I've been alive. Four decades an it hasn't happened yet. Does the chicken-little act ever get old for you guys?
I doubt it will. The crafting of ridiculous narratives is just one tool in the toolbox for rationalizing their regressive political aims.
The way I see it the U S could become a democratic tyranny with out the peoples vote being lost. One of the parties and I think it will be the {D}s some time in the future will dominate by promising more freebies and and of course making no cuts no matter how much the gvt goes in debt. Greece is a good example where they voted for the party that promised to turn back the austerity measures so they can keep their benefits that their gvt can not afford.
Some time in the future one party will control both houses and the presidency and be able to hold power for ever. I mean does anyone think that voters will vote to cut their own throats by voting for a party that supports austerity and cuts and reduces their benefits?
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