Tonight My Aunt brought home this article called "Why Democracy?" and we went over it. The article was very interesting to me and brought up some great discussion questions. The author of the article started by discussing what two of the questions were and his responses to them.
The first two questions were: "What is the biggest threat to Democracy" and "can terrorism destroy democracy?" In my opinion the biggest threat to democracy is itself because in voting for a person you are trusting them to keep the basic principles of democracy like free expression and free movement, and yes I do think that if we as a people let it terrorism can destroy it.
Two more good questions were brought up that were related to one another, they were: are dictators ever good "and is democracy for everyone?" To answer the first question I would say, yes if you want to have a stable government that doesn't change often, and to the second question no I don't think that democracy is for everyone because for some people it is better to have a stable and secure place to live were there is more thought for the community as a whole rather then just about yourself.
The next five questions were not related but are very interesting.
First "is God Democratic" in my opinion no. God (by what the bible says) requires obedience, and for you to give up your desires to his will...that is a Monarchy.
The next one was "are women more democratic then men" again I say no. As a people we are equal yet some women may be more democratic then some men but it is the same both ways, to generalize that all women are more democratic is just wrong.
After that came an interesting question "who or what rules the world" to me that is unknown.
The last two questions are my favorites: "what would make you start a revolution" and "whom would you vote for as President of the world?" To the first question I would have to say that if Bush turned whats left of the democracy into a monarchy, that would make me start a revolution. My answer for the last question was simple...George Washington, because he was offered the position of president of the US for a third term but declined because it was not right to do a third term when the law said you could only serve twice.
If you want to read the article and/or make comments go to www.whydemocracy.net or www.myspace.com/whydemocracy
Also if you have your own answers or thoughts you want to share feel free to send me your comments here on my blog. Just go to the link below and click on comments and then tell me what your thoughts are on democracy! Thanks for reading...
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5 comments:
really interesting post....I like your George Washington answer! Keep up the good thoughts...fun to have them and to think about them.
here are a few other questions for you:
1. are we interested in democracy as the highest value, or as merely a means to an end. i.e., if we can have a democracy where we do not have the rule of law etc (eg Iraq) is that not worse than a dictatorship where people have that rule and other good stuff, like free and good healthcare and big cigars (cuba).
also, can we seperate democracy from partisanship? this is what the founding fathers tried to do in the US Presidential elections and also several state legislatures were (and some continue to be) paarty-free. partisanship is, in my view, flawed as it is based on opposition, on conflict, whereas most of our problems stem from a lack of the recognition of our fundamental unity as a humanity.
good post though.
shamim
I think that democracy can destroy itself because if someone with charisma can motivate people to think like that person thinks they can, through votes, push through their agenda. We are seeing this very thing happen today in the US. George Bush has motivated people, not through charisma, but through fear, to give up many of their liberties. It remains to be seen if people will come to their senses and recind the control they have given to this president or if the US is now on a downhill slide away from democracy as it has been practiced there before George Bush came into office.
Hey Topher, Interesting thoughts. I don't think I'd start a revolution--it sounds way to complicated, but I'd join one to protect basic human rights. I think I might vote for Barbara Kingsolver (author of The Poisonwood Bible, The Bean Tree, Animal Dreams) as president because she would have the ability to really help people understand each other, look at things in a different way, confront injustices and hopefully to want to be a better person.
Isn't possible to have fundamental unity as a community (humanity) and still have parties/partisanship? Aren't there democracies that survive, even thrive, that have multiple parties but lack conflict? Thanks for starting us thinking, Topher!
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