On democracy
So, speaking of things that bring gloom and sadness to the world, let’s talk about the worst kind of government, bar every other kind.
Let’s do this: have you ever considered that that person — you know the one — can vote, and their vote is worth exactly the same as yours?
From the ancient Greeks to us, the legacy of democracy has been both freedom and prosperity, and absolute horror. From freedom to tyranny, then back to freedom again, democracy brings with it a cycle of authoritarian governments followed by liberal ones, each undoing as much of what the other did as possible, like the Pink Panther in a painting contest with Clouseau.
The blessing of democracy is also its curse: everyone can vote, so everyone’s opinion is counted, and that is the direction we take. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy, democracy.
Okay, no, it’s not that easy. The problem is simple and brutal: not all votes are created equal — not in weight, and certainly not in understanding. Yet we expect democracy to bring consistent results from inconsistent participants.
The only saving grace of this system is that, being so dispersed, so ethereal, absolute majorities are sort of impossible. And if we can avoid dictators — and we are great at that! — the system will try to balance itself.
I think that’s the allure machines have over us. That’s why we’re pursuing AI with reckless enthusiasm: because voting on ideas whose execution is managed by an impartial and incorruptible system sounds like a dream right now for just about everyone who isn’t into poli-sci — and that's a risk for another day, because those systems are nothing but corruptible.
For those who studied poli-sci, the democratic process is this sacred, deep, transcendental thing that guides society into the future. They can say things like, “That guy is a terrible person, a horrible human being, but an excellent politician,” while being all erudite and making the metaphorical white horse almost real.
What white horse?
Exactly. Moving on.
Yeah, poli-sci students: evolution’s answer to absolutely no question.
Never, ever, ever has someone said, “Oh no, we’re fucked. We’re drowning in metaphorical and real shit. Bring over a political scientist.”
When doctors or engineers graduate, society says, “Go, shape the future! Save lives! Build bridges!”
When a new batch of poli-sci students graduates, the collective reaction is a long groan followed by, “Hell yeah. Exactly what we needed. More political scientists.”
And it is because, as divided as our society is right now, it seems we all agree on one thing: poli-sci is useless, and studying it is the academic equivalent of just giving up, but with huge effort.
It’s a break in the risk-reward balance of the universe. Nobody has risked that much for so little possible gain since I took a plane in one country, flew to another, took an Uber, walked a short distance, and sat down in a coffee shop to wait for a young lady who only had ten minutes to spend with me, just because I missed her.
I won’t finish that story. I come out looking like an idiot.
But don’t do that. Romance is dead, kids. And poli-sci. And probably democracy.
The thing about democracy is that, at its core, there lives a disgusting creature.
Actually, thousands of disgusting creatures.
They know not how to do anything good. They are corrupt, sold to different interests, fake, chameleonic — and that is just speaking about the sort-of decent ones.
The politicians.
And this is the point at which democracy fails.
Why?
Because homo homini lupus is a constant, but these particular humans are wolves to millions of people at a time.
How many times have you voted for a politician over an issue, only for them to turn back, do exactly the opposite, and just keep going as usual?
The democratic system doesn’t survive the simplest scrutiny because it is built, operated, owned, corrupted, and bastardized daily, emphatically, by people who just don’t care.
And that problem cannot be fixed with more politicians, the same way you can’t unclog a toilet with more crap.
Better minds than mine will eventually come up with an answer to a system in which ideals are turned into bullet points, issues into paragraphs, and morals into something you yell at your opponents about while doing the exact same bad things.
And that is the big issue.
Feel free to flood the comments with the names of politicians who break this made-up rule, but here it is: to be a politician, you kind of need to be a psychopath.
The sole act of willingly taking the lives and welfare of millions into your hands is a psychopathic act.
Coveting that kind of power should be the first evidence that the person in question is not someone who should have it.
They debate in their beautifully lit chambers, filibustering each other in public while indulging in every possible perversion in private, and the people bleed.
Enjoy your Epstein holidays and your human safaris. I’ll be over here, working my ass off to pay my fucking taxes on time because, apparently, that is what civilization means now.
Why?
Fuck you, that’s why.
You’re no better than me, and if someone is going to torture me with stupid decisions, it’s me.
Semi-literate corrupt old bats deciding my future without ever looking at my face.
And have you ever spoken with a politician? Worked with one?
These are people with zero morals who are brilliant at tactics. They work from a verb tense that is as irritating as it is effective. We could call it the “regressive present.”
In normal life, when you’re talking about an emergent situation, you have to accept that you didn’t foresee it happening because, well, you’re not a seer, right?
But for politicians, adapting the present discourse to make it look like they had perfect foresight is par for the course. Nothing is set in stone. Everything is a half-truth, and they always come out looking like saints.
Or heroes.
Solving, very bravely, the problems they helped create in the first place, while pontificating in front of everyone with perfect hypocrisy.
That’s why outsiders come in and take the world by storm. That’s why young, idealistic people go into politics.
But that’s the secret: the system is not only corrupt. It is corrupting.
It will put you in its mouth, chew you, digest you, and then excrete you as a shadow of your old self, fitting perfectly with the others.
You had to compromise to move forward. You needed to make agreements to advance policy. You were doing it for the good of your voters.
You sold your soul, as the system knew you would. Congratulations, enjoy the island.
As with everything else, the problem with democracy is the human element: the person who votes out of fanaticism against their own interests, the one who votes mindlessly, the one who doesn’t vote at all.
The ignorant, the stupid, and the corrupt are not failures of democracy.
They are its raw material.
And they’re everywhere.
PS: Congratulations in your graduation, M and double that, because it's not Poli-sci. Go, shape the world, change it.
-Love, Sisyphus.
