Democracy My Ass

.Source: James West, Midas Letter 10/07/2008

During the most recent turn in the financial debacle, and in a masterful display of “perception management”, the bill to inject a further $700 Billion dollar remedy into the $500 TRILLION dollar (derivatives-driven) problem was amped up to $812 Billion and passed during a late Friday vote. Raising the maximum insurable amount for bank deposits to $250,000 from $100,000 during the process is actually a sneaky and effective way to add untold trillions more ostensibly to the total bailout number if banks continue to fail in quanitity.

Any semblance of a democratic or capitalistic appearance to addressing this problem has now been thoroughly abandoned, even as market observers suggested the first bill was voted down because it was perceived as “exceedingly socialist”.

Since it would appear that “democracy” has been redefined to embody government of the masses by the select few richest groups that wield absolute influence over the government, I thought it relevant to here include a more traditional definition of democracy courtesy of Merriam Webster.

1. a government by the people; especially : rule of the majority; 1b. a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections; 2. a political unit that has a democratic government; 3. the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority; 4. the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges.

Institutional money managers obviously support the continuing injection of capital into the markets to prevent the total collapse in value of their portfolios that further erosion in the confidence of the monetary system might induce.

But it is this very system which has cause the current problem, and shoring up a broken system that preserves itself is ludicrous. Let the damn thing fall down and break so we can set about rebuilding a more equitable system that is not so prone to abuse by those in positions of influence.

As individuals, it is high time we acknowledged that the duplicitous priority of our elected officials when it comes to colluding with those who prioritize self enrichment over responsible government negates the very possibility of a democratic free market system.

How is a democracy possible when the financial requirements of even participating in a municipal level election preclude that participation by all except those of substantial financial means. The ensures that representation is ONLY possible by the wealthy, whose interests are inherently opposed to the un-wealthy population..

According to democracywatch.com:

A democracy a society in which all adults have easily accessible, meaningful, and effective ways: 1. to participate in the decision-making processes of every organization that makes decisions or takes actions that affect them, and; 2. to hold other individuals, and those in these organizations who are responsible for making decisions and taking actions, fully accountable if their decisions or actions violate fundamental human rights, or are dishonest, unethical, unfair, secretive, inefficient, unrepresentative, unresponsive or irresponsible; so that all organizations in the society are citizen-owned, citizen-controlled, and citizen-driven, and all individuals and organizations are held accountable for wrongdoing.

The bi-partisan structure of the U.S. political arena negate the possibility of either of these tenets achieving any sort of reality.

It is important for investors and more importantly citizens to understand that the administration of the global economy is undertaken inconsistent with both democracy and capitalism. The actual philosophical descriptors applicable to the elitist hierarchical structure that dominates the global economy would more accurately be “fascist authoritarianism”. Whereas America is generally portrayed and believed by its citizens to be the pillar of western ideals characterized by the concepts of “freedom” and “democracy”, the reality is that those, combined with the stipulation of an “un-biased media”, are in fact smokescreens designed to obscure the reality, and over-burden the thinking of the average individual with corporate messaging designed to keep the consumer engine firing on all cylinders while simultaneously ensuring civil obedience through a collectively shared over-stimulated work ethic.

There is absolutely no reason why a government by referendum is not possible on major issues that affect every voter such as monetary policy, health care, and social spending. Given the advanced state of our interconnected world, a responsible democratic government should concern itself more with the improvement of the baseline standard of living for its citizenry as opposed to ensuring the unfettered profiteering of the rapacious minority of human beings playing ball in the biggest financial stadium.

Agitating for a complete redesign of the financial system – particularly that associated with the twin systems is the responsibility of every single citizen out there.

That this is impossible given the currently falsely labeled “democracy” is a given, and so it is the political system that must be revamped alongside the financial to ensure that each and every voice has a direct vote on policy, not just candidacy.

Winston Churchill said “Democracy is an imperfect system…but it is better than the alternatives.” That may be true, but it is some time now that we haven’t really been living under that system to find out. Now is the time for the establishment of real democracy, and an end to the elitist tiered authoritarian shadow government that currently prevails.

Unfortunately, the barrier to this necessary evolutionary step is first encountered at the educational level. When it is elite donors who are able to exclusively influence the curriculum of the top post secondary institutions on pain of withdrawing their financial support, a education balanced by the immersion by the student in both a classical liberal education (from which perspective is derived) in tandem with that of modern business and political theory. So add a redevelopment of how education is governed to the list of our cultural institutions that are now outdated and churning out mal-educated students