It began with some inchoate sense that what we now call 'politics' strongly resembles a prison in which the front gates are not only unlocked, but they are currently never closed.
"Reading this I asked myself, “When did we begin to fetishise democracy? What was the role of the WWII in using democracy as a cover for militarism ?”
An excellent question, tjarlz!
My initial response is this: There is 'democracy' -- in scare quotes -- and there is the possibility, I dearly hope, of societies in which the scare quotes can be honestly and safely removed. These are two different things altogether in my opinion.
Democracy, with scare quotes, is a sham, a scam, an illusion, a fraud, a hoax. But actual democracy is governance of, by and for the people. It has to be all of these to be deserving of being called "real democracy".
Sadly, I don't believe there is very much actual -- real -- democracy in our world. And if we're to have any chance in hell at real democracy, we've got to subject the claim to democracy to a thoroughgoing critical assessment.
I live in the USA. You live in Australia. Both nations are, it seems to me, only pseudo-democracies, in that we've been too quick to accept the label. And both nations are subject to a massive amount of propaganda from a certain segment of 'the political class' (see the Wikipedia article on that term) which would rather we had only a pseudo version of 'democracy'.
If we're not asking the profound questions about what 'real democracy' might be, we're likely falling for the pseudo- version. I'm not falling for it.
Agreed with James.
"Reading this I asked myself, “When did we begin to fetishise democracy? What was the role of the WWII in using democracy as a cover for militarism ?”
An excellent question, tjarlz!
My initial response is this: There is 'democracy' -- in scare quotes -- and there is the possibility, I dearly hope, of societies in which the scare quotes can be honestly and safely removed. These are two different things altogether in my opinion.
Democracy, with scare quotes, is a sham, a scam, an illusion, a fraud, a hoax. But actual democracy is governance of, by and for the people. It has to be all of these to be deserving of being called "real democracy".
Sadly, I don't believe there is very much actual -- real -- democracy in our world. And if we're to have any chance in hell at real democracy, we've got to subject the claim to democracy to a thoroughgoing critical assessment.
I live in the USA. You live in Australia. Both nations are, it seems to me, only pseudo-democracies, in that we've been too quick to accept the label. And both nations are subject to a massive amount of propaganda from a certain segment of 'the political class' (see the Wikipedia article on that term) which would rather we had only a pseudo version of 'democracy'.
If we're not asking the profound questions about what 'real democracy' might be, we're likely falling for the pseudo- version. I'm not falling for it.