A Vote for Dictatorship

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter. Mark Twain Unlike Jay Leno, I state my sources wherever necessary. The above is certainly a witty remark and it wouldn't be right for me to take credit for another person's wit. In fact, it would be plagiarism to include Twain's words here with no reference to his name and people who commit plagiarism go to prison. I'm thinking about democracy now after a government pamphlet invited me to go onto the G of C website and exchange opinions about Canadian democracy with other Canadian citizens. Clearly the G of C disagrees with Mark Twain on this subject. Well, I guess he was a U.S. citizen, after all. This might not be the best time to ask me for my opinion of Canadian democracy. After the murderous treatment I received from our government broadcasting corporation, CBC, I'm somewhat dissatisfied with Canadian democracy. I think we got our health care right, but we have a long way to go in other areas of our public administration. When you ask me about democracy, I can give you an opinion on it because I have read Plato's Republic from cover to cover and studied other schools of thought around how to achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number, which is the goal of any real political philosophy. I've also read Aristotle's Ethics, which endows me with a substantial opinion about justice. I developed my opinion because I care about democracy and justice and I have spent a lot of time thinking about them. But the average citizen usually has other less intellectual priorities. This is likely what Mark Twain was referring to in his statement. The longer I live, the more I agree with how Plato rated democracy as an inferior system. Plato believed that benevolent dictatorship was the best form of government, with our leaders chosen as children in the schoolyard and trained for their responsibilities from an early age. He strongly believed that political leaders should be strictly limited to their political power and that the personal acquisition of wealth posed a dangerous conflict of interest for government officials. In his ideal state, political leaders would only ever receive a modest income but would be appointed for life. Since one of the qualities he was screening for in his selection process was altruism, his ruling class would naturally accept their financial restrictions in exchange for their power. I see some examples of this in our current democracies, but gaining political power is still impossible without heaps of cash to spend on the election campaign. Oddly enough, Republicans in the United States, named after Plato's own book, tend to field the wealthiest candidates for public office. Where I may break away from what I learned from Plato and speak in my own words is on the feedback of my own personal observations. I'm fifty-one now and I've lived through more elections than I can remember. I've noticed the same wish expressed by voters all the way from my earliest childhood memories of Nixon's Watergate to the present. No one seems to vote for anything but against policies and practices that have come to disappoint them over the course of an elected assembly's term. Elections are always rather negative in this respect. Further to that, I think democracy is unrealistic in one very important way: it tries to please everyone. And we all know that when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. Plato didn't mention this either. But I do truly love my country. I think Canada is the freest country on the globe. My life, such as it has unfolded, may only have been possible here in my country, where we share the wealth a little more efficiently than they do south of the border. And if I am ultimately successful with my extremely difficult goals, I may amend some of my more pessimistic statements about my country accordingly.
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© 2016. Statements by David Skerkowski. All rights reserved.