“Democracy always seems bent upon killing the thing it theoretically loves ... liberty, the very cornerstone of its political metaphysic...Try to imagine monarchy jailing subjects for maintaining the divine right of Kings! Or Christianity damning a believer for arguing that Jesus Christ was the Son of God! … But under democracy the remotest and most fantastic possibility is a common-place of every day. All the axioms resolve themselves into thundering paradoxes, many amounting to downright contradictions in terms. The mob is competent to rule the rest of us—but it must be rigorously policed itself. There is a government, not of men, but of laws - but men are set upon benches to decide finally what the law is and may be."
Were the idea of democracy not so charming, the task of persuading my fellow Americans of its absurdity would be much easier.
Yet democracy — for all its buffoonery and pitfalls, hypocrisy and contradictions, parades of false promises and fits of unearned hosannas — does remain eternally charming.
And by this charm, democracy endures as an ideal despite failing in practical reality; for charm often trumps truth-telling, flattery often conquers criticism, and the promise of happiness is often more alluring than actually achieving happiness itself. Democracy is always skipping from pasture to pasture, hopping the fences of its good neighbors, and trespassing on foreign lands in search of greener grasses.
Such is how I view democracy: absurd in theory, farcical in practice, yet noteworthy in its ability to intoxicate everyday people with a sense of empowerment in a kingdom that never comes.
Indeed, democracy is a sort of false gospel that promises to bring about heaven on earth. Yet it is always failing to find this earthly paradise and constantly contradicting itself in its vain search – all while fooling itself blind to its contradictions and failures. By accepting “the will of the people” as its summum bonum, the democrat must believe the remedy to democracy’s constant contradictions and failures is always more democracy.
My main issue with the democratic ideal is that the people, as the sovereign authority, know what they want and are fit to rule over others. Whereas other authorities failed to rule in the past, say, kings or aristocrats, the people will take up this mantle to rule and do so justly in the name of protecting the people’s liberty – or so the theory goes. It is never suggested that the many may be ignorant of what they want and easily manipulated by the few into believing all sorts of nonsense and nincompoopery. In practice, the people have hardly been just in ruling over others – nor have they ever truly been in charge for long.
The collective known as “the people'' is not some singular entity able to carry out its own conscious will. The general will does not exist. There is no collective will, just as there is no collective mind or stomach. “The people” are always guided by a few individual minds and special interests. In fact, democracy today is barely democratic, being more the rule of the few than the rule of the many.
Of course, all forms of government inevitably drift towards oligarchy, but today’s oligarchic managerial elite still loves to describe themselves in the language of defending democracy. “Democracy” is the ultimate form of Orwell’s meaningless words. Even a totalitarian backwater such as North Korea claims to be the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. It’s just good propaganda these days to claim to be democratic.
Thus, when I hear anyone appealing to “democracy” or the “will of the people,” it is quite obvious that the speaker is disguising their own narrow interests in the name of the mythical people’s interest. I am tempted to call this trick inherently dishonest, but I will not. I suspect most democrats who appeal to the “will of the people” really do have faith in the power of democracy to rule and answer the political questions of the day. Ironically, such true believers, just like the people themselves, never end up actually running the show.
It is not so much that I personally lack faith in people. I believe people should be free to manage themselves, free to pursue their own interests voluntarily, including choosing which leaders, communities, and associations best advance their interests, and free to settle disputes through property rights and the messy trial-and-error of common law. Men need liberty because they do not agree on first principles. There is no singular answer to man’s politics that is above the questioning of other men. The laws men enforce are never neutral nor outcome determinant.
Where I lack faith is in the idea that certain authorities are beyond questioning; that some authorities – whether an emperor, a king, an aristocracy, or the people themselves – have a right to rule with impunity.
Unchecked authority, no matter the form of government, is perilous to man’s liberty. But unchecked rule by democratic appeal is especially cruel, as it is tantamount to marching liberty to the scene of the guillotine and, in the name of liberty, swiftly severing its head to the mob’s raucous jeers and cheers.
In closing, recall what John Adams wrote in a letter to John Taylor on Dec. 17, 1814:
Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a Democracy Yet, that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to Say that Democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than Aristocracy or Monarchy. It is not true in Fact and no where appears in history. Those Passions are the same in all Men, under all forms of Simple Government, and when unchecked, produce the same Effects of Fraud[,] Violence and Cruelty. When clear Prospects are opened before Vanity, Pride, Avarice or Ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate Philosophers and the most conscientious Moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves, Nations and large Bodies of Men, never.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances as well as any feedback, please email joeyclarklive@gmail.com. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to Commentary@1819news.com.
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