The Dimness of Democracy

Very rarely do I bother scrolling through my Facebook feed. I'm not really sure why I ever do, to be honest. The vast majority of the time I find nothing of any real interest, good or bad. But occasionally, as I scroll through every asinine political opinion, every generic prayer, and every insipid inspirational quote, my mood begins to darken. I find myself besieged by a heavy ennui. I hear tell that God made these people in his image. Heaven help us.

This is part of the reason that it is difficult for me to share people's faith in democracy. I'm supposed to let this majority's representatives wield power against me? They should get to decide the boundaries of my freedom? We have been doing this whole "let the masses choose a leader" thing in America for more than 200 years and behold what it has brought us! Nothing but liars, thieves, and war mongering mass murderers. I'm supposed to choose between Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz? Or maybe Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump? Am I the only one who sees how fucking stupid this has become?

I watched CNN's highlights of the most recent Republican "debate". The crowd was booing and cheering all that they hated and all that they loved respectively. Is this a football game? How is one expected to perform his patriotic duty of pretending that the debates carry intellectual significance while jackasses are howling over the canned responses of charlatans and would be despots? As a friend of mine noted, "It's like a reality t.v. show. No wonder Trump is doing so well." H.L. Mencken, sage that he was, always seemed to be able to cut through the shit and get right to the heart of the matter (if I may so crassly mix metaphors):

If x is the population of the United States and y is the degree of imbecility of the average American, then democracy is the theory that x X y is less than y.

"But Brandon, or Anthony, or whatever the hell you're calling yourself these days," I can hear you protest. "Democracy may not be perfect, but it's the best thing we've got. Would you rather we were ruled by a king?" I must admit that King Numbers has been a far gentler chieftain than any socialist dictator. But America doesn't have a true democracy, fortunately. The Founders were a bunch of aristocratic elitists who didn't fully trust that liberty would be protected by the mob rule of the plebs. Government for the People and by the People? Not so much. But they did give the People a say. And as that germ of Democracy has grown, so has the power of the State, particularly that of the executive branch.

You see, it was never democracy that was the most important factor in America's formerly unprecedented wealth and freedom. It was adherence to a sound philosophy. Individual liberty and private property rights were given primacy over the capricious opinions of 51% of the population. Voters chose candidates, then as now, who were made to swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. They were pledging to never make legislation that would violate natural rights or the rule of law. But no one takes that pledge seriously anymore. They know you don't care.

I suppose people have pretty much been the same throughout recorded history. I highly doubt that they will be changing anytime soon. I don't even know why I bother with most social media. I'm not really a social butterfly. I'm more like a moth. I'm attracted to the people who have light shining out of them. I want nothing to do with the dim.

Liberty and the Intellectually Elite

Ideas are all that matter. From all appearances, the Left wing is the most recent victor in the culture war and the fear mongering Right has proved triumphant in the ideas of supposed national security. This is mostly bad on both accounts. Both the Left and the Right fall under the umbrella of progressive statism which is an incredibly pernicious idea. But how could such a harmful idea become so prominent in a society that once cherished liberty? Why would the mass of people choose relative tyranny over self determination? Aside from the detrimental effect that government schooling has wrought on rational thinking, I think that perhaps progressivism is just easier to grasp. And people will almost always follow the path of least resistance.

If this is true, then the real question is how did individual liberty become so popular in the 18th and 19th centuries? Almost all of human history is a story of people being oppressed by the powerful. But for that brief moment in time in the West, it was freedom that had the momentum. True freedom. The United States seemed to be the first place where a government was founded almost apologetically. Indeed, even the writings of those in the government reflected a deep suspicion of State power. As liberty grew, so did the wealth of the common man. This led to men trying to discover the connection between liberty and wealth. These men were eventually dubbed economists.

Why were the benefits of individual liberty and strong property rights able to be grasped and accepted by the common man then as opposed to now? Were people just smarter back then? I tend to think not. Just as it is today, there has always been a small group of men who have been intellectually superior to the rest of us. The ideas of these men ultimately shape the opinions of the masses. But even the intellectual elite can (and often do) harbor toxic philosophies. They might have sound logic but if their premises are wrong; they will still arrive at faulty conclusions.

There is no short term solution for this perennial problem. The only game is long game. Those who will grow to become the next generation of intellectual elites must be exposed to the ideas of liberty when they are young. They must accept the correct premises before their egos are invested in the wrong ones. And then they must be persuasive. F.A. Hayek stated that there are two kinds of intellectuals. The first kind are the few great minds that come up with new ideas. The second kind are those who are able to grasp those ideas and then communicate them to the masses. Our hypothetical liberty loving elites will need fertile minds in the latter group in order to successfully bring the ideas of freedom, peace, and prosperity to the general public.

I've described the (vague) strategy for achieving the long term goal of increased individual liberty. But I've not mentioned the most important ingredient, viz., passion. You cannot teach passion and you cannot learn it. It's more like a virus that infects you. I don't need to persuade passionate people to go out and spread the gospel of freedom. They do it instinctively. They see truth and want everyone else to see. But even the passionate can become pessimistic and withdraw from the battle. This is why it is important that the lovers of true liberty encourage each other and try to remain engaged in the struggle. We might never see the seeds we plant bear fruit in our lifetime, but so what? There is nothing more beautiful than human freedom. And I will gladly expend my last breath extolling its countless virtues.