Dumb Democracy

Political leaders in the so-called free world seem to be making more and more decisions that make less and less sense. I’m sure there are many reasons for it, but one of them seems to be the general “dumbing-down” of Western populations coupled with the rise in fundamentalism taking place. Politicians will always pander to the voters, when voters are largely made up of people who believe in an invisible man who lives in the sky, how can we expect rational political decisions?

The problem with democracy is that it allows almost anyone to vote, no test of intelligence or sanity is applied, only an age restriction, why is that? Age is no guarantee of fitness to vote. Some would argue that nothing needs changed because voters with extreme views would be outweighed by the majority well-balanced view. I say bollocks! It’s akin to the faulty premise of twelve individuals in a jury reaching the right decision, it’s well known that juries can easily be bullied by just one or two determined jurors who consciously or not, are aware of the human tendency to follow leaders and use that fact for their own ends. Politicians and religious leaders understand this lemming or sheep-like characteristic also and manipulate their flock accordingly.

When religious idiots like Falwell call upon American parents to get their children baptized and get them registered to vote, is it any wonder that war-mongering regimes like the Bush dictatorship rise to power and threaten the lives of all of us? I’m amazed that young people in the USA don’t seem to realize they’re being manipulated and filled with a load of religious and patriotic fervour by those who seem to consider them only as cannon fodder in the war to control Middle Eastern resources.

If you doubt that, take a look at current events, young service-persons are sent to Iraq conned into believing they’re fighting terrorists. They’re trained to kill, but when they do so they get punished, when the enemy kills them, well…that’s tough. Has the death of any British or American soldier in Iraq reduced terrorism in the slightest? Of course not, rather terrorism has increased as all thinking people knew it would before the whole deadly fiasco began.

It’s not very long ago that we considered women to be unsuitable voters but thankfully we’ve rid ourselves of that ridiculous situation so I see no reason why a further radical change in the system should not take place. How about restricting voting to those who are not religious? After all, politics concerns life in the real world not in some imaginary place. Yes, I know people would lie but we could monitor their behaviour, this is perfectly in line with the current privacy invasion we tolerate right now! Islamic extremists would love this because they already believe that voting shouldn’t happen at all, only the laws of Allah have any meaning, politics mean nothing to them.

Imagine a world where governments are elected by voters who have demonstrated an ability to make sane rational choices based upon reasoned argument that benefit all, or at least the majority of people. It would I’m sure, be a more fair and peaceful world than the ‘bullshit-the-majority-please-the-privileged-few’ world, we have right now.

In short, our present so-called democratic system is laden with shortcomings that need serious overhaul or perhaps complete replacement.