The Popular Legend of Democracy

I dread it.

Perhaps you understand how our Western cultural heritage equates “rule of law” with civilization and all that is obviously good and right in human existence. It carries this basic assumption that you simply cannot live any other way without diving off into barbarity, so that the resulting chaos just begs for some civilized nation to come in and conquer you. There was a time when just about everyone on earth you were likely to encounter would bow the knee to this notion.

But it was always a lie told by some elite plutocrats intent on ruling things as they pleased. It wasn’t a bad mirage to keep the serfs distracted, but it was hardly fitting for the entitled class. Thus, we have had several generations of increasing separation between the two groups — voters and government officials. Whatever amounts to sophistication has been hidden farther and farther from the masses.

Perhaps you’ve met someone who was sophisticated, possessed of a genuinely noble education such as was more common a century ago. It’s not that he was an entitled snob, but the very opposite. He really didn’t expect much of his world, but held the guy in the mirror to a high standard. It’s also the opposite of hypocrisy. He was able to find himself a place almost anywhere, but most assuredly preferred the company of those who were similarly mature and cultured. He didn’t demand the world conform, but enticed others to rise to his urbanity.

Such people don’t take themselves too seriously, but believe that they are part of something far greater.

Instead, we have several generations of folks who somehow insist that if they could just get the laws right, and get the judges to rule accordingly, all would be well. They equate the system with God. Whenever anything fails to meet their presumptions in this world, they throw a big fuss and demand that somebody make it right. It’s that same sense of entitlement but utterly impotent. It’s even more ridiculous when you hear them talking about the way the Internet works, but we’ve covered that enough here. The point is we have an awful lot of activists running around promoting some kind of legal and social agenda that is so completely out of touch with reality, it makes you wonder if you’ve stumbled onto a movie set.

At some point that mirage will fade away, blown into oblivion by the storms of general economic and social instability. It will come about the same time all the governments and banks have to outright admit they are financially insolvent. Okay, so maybe they’ll wait until after they cut all the social welfare stuff from the budget in favor of military spending and full-time pointless warfare. The elite who never believed in the rule of law will openly admit that much, anyway. I don’t dread that.

What I dread is dealing with all the children of social conformity-at-the-bottom. These folks will be chaotically disoriented. They’ll keep pushing the automatic pedestrian crossing button long after the streets are awash in rivers of blood. Maybe you’ve seen that bewildered crying of the child who has been told there is no Santa Claus. This is the same folks who keep voting every election.

I’m not looking forward to it.