Which Elite?

The proper question on government should be which elite group will rule.
Democracy, however you define it, has not worked out well in the US, nor anywhere else in the West. It’s even worse in Islamic lands: “The entire point of establishing the various kings and military dictatorships at the end of the European colonial era was to avoid popular governments and thereby prevent the revival of violent Islamic expansion.” Instead, all this Arab Spring stuff leads inevitably to a rise in the one thing we are being taught to hate most here in the West — Islamic rule. Indeed, all our NATO intervention before the Arab Spring has created the most Islamic government in over a century for Iraq. It’s the same on all levels of human society.
One of the few churches I remember fondly was the little country church which had big bills, having been plundered and dumped on the few remaining members, who had almost no experience. The only responsible adults left were technically unqualified as deacons, yet they managed to pay off the debts, maintain the building, and keep the doors open. They were “morally” unqualified, being all divorced and remarried. Baptists have some odd rules, often unwritten. These people got it thriving again, showing their moral qualifications in rebuilding a really nice community of acceptance and loving discipleship. Can you imagine?
In digging through their old papers, I noticed the constitution and by-laws were frankly illegal under the State of Texas incorporation laws for churches, so we set about rewriting them. They left it up to me, so I simply made de jure what was de facto the system they were using. To prevent anyone from the former rapine crew from coming back, I intentionally granted the bulk of power to those who showed up most with the longest history of involvement. From that moment on, it was their church to lose. It was the most undemocratic system in the whole state, and intentionally so; I pushed the envelope.
That’s because I knew before I got involved democracy — the ostensible form of church government officially required for all Baptist churches — has always been a human disaster. It’s built on fables, a mythology of human nature plainly contrary to Scripture. The original structure was patriarchal, tribal and based on the image of the shepherd as head of household, or head of church operations, if you will. This was also the intended model for all human government as revealed by God.
The proper question is not whether there will be an elite rule over human government, but which elite. Granted, such a system tends to draw psychopaths like dung draws flies, but it has proved time and time again superior in terms of human survival and prosperity over every other form of human government. Elder rule: It can’t get any better on this plane of existence.