Because You Never Asked

DEMOCRACY

     (This is one of the first essays in this series, written way back in the early 90’s, even before the first Gulf War. More than 700 pages worth of old growth forest have followed, but even now, as I put it up on my website in 2007, the seeds planted way back then can be seen taking root. With some degree of pride, I’d consider it still relevant.)

     With the beginning of the new era triggered by “Perestroika”, the signal coming out of the old Soviet Union has become illegibly scrambled. As the peoples of this now quasi-entity try to provide a clear picture once again, the pundits in the west redundantly ask if “democracy” is taking hold there, if the Russians are ready for “democracy”, can we teach them “democracy” --- etc. and blah, blah.

     I’d rather ask about the state of democracy here in the good old U.S. of A. I’d rather ask if it is much more democratic than good old fashioned Soviet “totalitarianism”? Given the mind set of a person conditioned in the West, such question might be considered absurd. Ladies and gentlemen --- it is my task to convince you that things are even more absurd than that.

     Allow me to put forth the following question: does the average American really have much more influence over their society’s decision makers (that is, the business interests which rule supreme in the West) than the Soviet masses had over their monolithic “Party”? Does an American politician represent the popular will any more than his Russian counterpart, or do they both curry favor in similar places, trampling the fewest toes, playing their cards right until they finally end up with preferred parking at the right places in Washington or Moscow? It’s relevant to note that both societies have had some success in muddling the frontiers of class distinction, and, generally speaking, anyone with the smarts and ambition to play the game shrewdly can get to the top. It might even be argued that Soviet society was less broken into classes than the western “democracies”, thus making it more democratic, or, to phrase it differently, a land of more equal opportunity within the confines of what it had to offer.

     Upon closer reflection, it seems the substantive difference between American “democracy” and Soviet “totalitarianism”, based upon the empowerment of each system’s average citizen to effect policy, is illusory. The real difference is one of perception, created by the way each respective government has presented itself to the world. American “democracy” is slickly packaged and sold, a function of capitalist society the Russians have always been befuddled by. As a result, we have our “adversarial” election circus, where we find out who really believes in God, who’s going to lock up more crooks, who loves America more, who has an obsession for young blonds, and other such inconsequential horse manure. We then accept the results grudgingly and congratulate ourselves for having had something to do with something.

     Ironically, the Soviets have always had congresses, delegates and impressive parliament buildings inhabited by beings that dress and act much like their American counterparts. But they clumsily apply it. Instead of calling themselves the Liberals and Conservatives, or the Democrats and Republicans, or just the Frics and Fracs operating within the parameters of acceptable socialist behavior, they have their unicorn “Party” and call it a day. If the American power elite were so unsophisticated, there’d be one “Party”, the Business Party, with career think tank people (“apparatchiks”) making policy decisions within the parameters of acceptable capitalist practices ---

     Which is what we really have!

     But we market it well and call it “democracy”. Which brings me to --- (see essay “Ross Perot”).   

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Email: JerryG@postcman.info