Sunday, December 21, 2003
Democracy is Tyranny Without Revolutions
Democracy is a feedback loop that allows through just as much tyranny as the mass psychology will admit at a given time. And because people adapt, because they come to accept as a necessity anything that has been there long enough, they will always accept a little more tyranny tomorrow than they did today. And because they have accepted each bit as it came, they see themselves as under their own rule, even if in truth the driving forces had other interests in mind--and the resulting system other people to benefit.
And so democracy is an evolving tyranny immune to revolutions, like a cleverly malicious tyrant who polls his patrons regularly to see just how much they will tolerate, and just what superficial things would make them feel better about the whole thing. Over time, there is nowhere we can't go, no absurdity the masses can't be sold into taking themselves. If they are taken too quickly, they simply vote it down, and vote it in in smaller steps instead.
Democracy is to say "help me enslave you--tell me just how much more you will accept today without fighting back" and the reply is "just this much!"
The snow was falling in huge clumps, so I tried to catch some with the camera's flash:
Quite a contrast from the same trees when I first arrived:
