Is it time to reconsider Democracy?
“For the people, by the people and of the people.” — words that have been immortalized by Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln envisioned a government that was represented by the people’s wishes and which enshrined the right to equality for everyone. But even he couldn’t have possibly imagined that democracy would turn into the clusterfuck that it is today. If he did, he would’ve taken back his words immediately.
The Brexit showed us how democracy can fail. The majority of the UK electorate voted to turn its back on the biggest political project in the world, a flawed but forward-thinking union that served as the only concrete symbol of European unity after the continent was torn apart by two World Wars. And the saddest part is that they did it without having any clue as to why they were doing it. Google’s Trends Twitter account reported an increase of 250 percent in people searching “What happens if we leave the EU?” and “What is the EU?” at around midnight British time, two hours after the referendum polls closed.
When the power to make potentially dangerous decisions with global repercussions is given in the hands of common people, things tend to go awry. Just look at what happened in the aftermath of UK’s decision to leave the EU. The pound is plunging, the global markets are in free fall, we’re probably going to have a mini recession, Scotland is most likely going to call for an independence vote again, this time with a very high chance of a Yes vote and all through this chaos, Putin is jubilant because the West has been weakened.
All of the above consequences were predicted by experts. The Remain campaigners constantly reminded the people that this is what would happen, but the people chose to go with their guts, so powerful was the fear-mongering perpetrated by Nigel Farage and his delightfully racist party- UKIP. With UKIP’s poisonous message regarding immigrants and how they’re all bloody terrorists here to steal jobs from honest British folk, the people were naturally frightened. Just look at the poster below-
Who wouldn’t be terrified by that horde of foreigners coming to forcefully take your jobs, destroy British culture and impose Sharia Law (He actually said that). I find it a bit hypocritical that Nigel Farage has the audacity to complain about immigration when the UK has historically invaded almost every third-world country there is and imposed their own laws on the native people of the land. They happily pillaged India, turned half of the Chinese population into Opium addicts and murdered millions of people worldwide in their attempts to bring British table manners, high etiquette and fish n’ chips to the countries under British Imperial rule. But the past is past, eh? Time to move on. Only losers dwell on the past.
Democracy has been successfully reduced to an episode of Mad Men. It has turned into a game of who can sell their ideas to the gullible masses in the most flashiest manner possible. The LEAVE camp did a good job with that, with the scary posters and the big red bus with an inaccurate fact on it, ridden around by a guy who looks like an English Donald Trump.
The Remain camp chose to go with sombre solid hard facts instead, and therein lay their problem. Who gives a shit about facts when you can have big red buses! Everyone knows that people will believe whatever is written on a big red bus barrelling through the high street!
With these kind of ads, it is understandable that people will give in to fear instead of rational judgement. Fear is a better motivating factor than logic and reason. Besides, the people have had enough of facts. Just listen to what this douche-bag (the former Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove) has to say about the supposed experts.
After watching that video and listening to Nigel Farage talk, I have been forced to correct my long held belief that the English accent can make anything sound smart and sexy.
According to poll statistics, the Leave voters were on an average less educated than the Remain voters. People with a good education and college degrees predominantly voted Remain. A clear divide among the generations is also seen with young people mostly voting Remian while only 2 out of every 5 people over 65, voted Remain. Who’s going to have to live with the consequences longer, I wonder? Those above 65 people have a maximum of 25 years to live if we’re being optimistic, but the younger people have to suffer for more than 60 years through no fault of their own.
While in the US, the failure of Democracy is playing out on a grander and more terrifying scale. Of course I’m talking about The Donald! Quite recently, he passed Clinton in the national polls at one point, with a lead of 45% to 42% against Clinton. Any rational intelligent person will be astounded that such a thing can happen. But the problem is, most of the Trump voters are not intelligent or even rational sometimes. Trump’s strategy is the same one used by the LEAVE camp in Brexit. They are both playing in to people’s fears using flashy advertisements.
If you try to critically analyse the two candidates, Clinton comes off as one with a solid grasp of the issues plaguing the country and has sound policy plans while all Trump has are vapid arguments, belittling names for his competitors and grand claims without any substance.
I will make America great again. If I get elected, we will win so much that we’ll get tired of winning!
Trump supporters say that they like Trump because he says it like it is, is very real and very sincere, he calls things out and he does not allow lies to live.
Those should never be reasons to elect a guy to the post of the World’s most powerful man. They sound like reasons to give him a job as a journalist, not the President of the United States! An intelligent person would know that and would make his decision considering facts and not the claims of the person- “I’m very rich. I have been very successful in running my business. Let me run America, so we can win together!” Of course what Trump fails to mention and what intelligent people know, is that he’s really not that successful, having run almost every business he stamped his name on, down into the ground. Even graduates from Trump University can probably run a business better than him.
There is however a way to fix Democracy
People are inherently stupid. They are not experts in matters of state and are not aware of the far reaching consequences that their impulsive decisions might have. They are too busy living their own lives to care about deep political discourse. They’re too busy providing for their families, making a living, eating, drinking, fucking, sleeping and then fucking again.
Politics has become a complicated and deeply convoluted subject. You cannot grasp the full aspects of it in the time it takes Trump to make a racist comment in any one of his numerous TV appearances. It is not as simple as deciding which Harry Potter book is the worst (The fifth one) or which Game of Thrones character you hate the most (Ramsey Bolton).
People shouldn’t be allowed to vote on important decisions simply because they are citizens of a country. That’s like saying students of a school should have the right and freedom to make the rules and set the syllabus for themselves without any interference from the teachers.
There’s a reason why we don’t allow that. Children do not know what’s good for them! If they did, they would all eat their vegetables instead of sneakily throwing it all away when mom’s not looking. In much the same way, citizens of a country rarely know what’s best for them especially in the complicated and convoluted political scenario of today.
Only people who are able to make informed choices should be allowed to vote. There can be a system to check this. Eligible voters must first be administered an online test, consisting of a basic test for intelligence (IQ Tests have been proven to have biases) along with a short questionnaire testing their knowledge on the issue that they will be voting on. Only after they pass the test should they be allowed to vote.
Want to vote for Donald Trump?
Choose from below the correct policy change Donald Trump proposed during his campaign. Which policy of Hillary Clinton are you most fearful about?
Want to vote Leave?
Choose from below the outcome you most fear if the country voted Remain. Which of the reasons below is why you want to vote Leave.
I am sure experts more qualified than me can decide on the best ways to select the intelligent, informed voters in a fair and transparent way. I’m only giving a general idea of what can be done to fix this issue before something terrible happens that we cannot undo. (Like Donald Trump actually winning)
It’ll still be a democracy, a government for the people, by the people and of the people. The only change will be that, it’ll be idiotproof.
I know some of you will argue that this will lead to a government voted in by the elite. All I can say to that is-
No one is stopping you from getting smarter.
It might sound radical to some of you, but I believe that this is the only way we can stop our world from plunging into chaos, just because self-serving politicians with media-savvy teams were able to prey on people’s fears and ignorance.
