After 1776, when they began to think seriously about what form of government would be best for America, the Founding Fathers of America were extremely impressed with the ancient Greek system of government we call democracy. The ancient Greek city state (or polis) of Athens is credited with implementing a system of government of and by the people whereby eligible citizens would congregate to make decisions. They called this system demokratica It was, in fact, one man, an ancient Athenian lawgiver called Cleisthenes, who is recognized as the Father of Athenian Democracy. It was Cleisthenes who, in 508 BC, personally reformed the constitution of ancient Athens to set it upon a distinctively democratic footing.
Although American democracy was inspired by ancient Athenian democracy, in the year 2022, it has very little in common with the later. My argument is that America's original system of democratic governance has now morphed into a degenerate, bastardized (an immoral) form of democracy that I would call "Industrial Democracy". To explain my point, I'll need to start with a quick overview of the primary characteristics of ancient Athenian democracy...
HOW DID DEMOCRACY WORK IN ANCIENT ATHENS ?
First of all, Athens was a ancient Greek city state (orpolis) that was pretty small by today's standards. It had a population of 300,000 at most, and that included many slaves and foreigners. Of this number, the only formal citizens were adult, native born, white, males; who numbered about 30,000 or one tenth of the overall population. These citizens - the demos, the people - were the formal basis of political power, rather than some wealthy ruling elite (such as oligarchs or plutocrats) or some tyrannical dictator (such as existed in some other ancient Greek states).
In the Athenian democratic system of government there were no elections. All leadership positions (apart from the military) were chosen by lot, at random, from among the citizens who had put their own names forward. This even included the Leader of the Assembly - the collected body of citizens - who was basically the President of the nation (though he really didn't have much formal power). The ancient Athenians invented a device called a kleroterion into which the names were randomly inserted on little tokens; coloured dice were then used to select names randomly and fairly from among the various tribes and families. The system had several advantages: immediate results; no costly or corrupted election campaigns; fairness; transparency and an equal involvement of all concerned. The citizens of ancient Athens clearly had to be nice to each other, anyone of whom could someday hold a position of prominence.
Unlike America, ancient Athenian democracy was DIRECT democracy, there were no representatives. Once a month, all interested citizens gathered on a large, open hilltop (called thepnyx) to listen to the issues of the day. When the time came for decisions, the outcome was determined by a very public show of hands. Even big, grave issues like going to war were decided this way.
Altogether ancient Athenian democracy was simply TOO COOL 4 SKOOL !. It was SMALL, ACCOUNTABLE, DIRECT, and totally TRANSPARENT. Women were not allowed to participate in the democratic process, nor were foreign races/ethic groups; ancient Athenian democracy was a strictly racial (White European), ethnic (native-born Athenian) and gendered (male only) system of government. Shortly after democratic governance was established in ancient Athens, it was greatly strengthened by the legendary, Athenian, statesman Pericles (495 - 429 BC). The period during which Pericles lead the city state is known as the "Golden Age of Athens" During the "Golden Age" there was a remarkable blossoming of high culture the likes of which the world has never seen again. The magnificent achievements of the ancient Greeks in education, art, architecture, sculpture, philosophy, playwrighting/theatre, mathematics, poetry, history, medicine and the like, laid the foundation for Western civilization. I think one of the reasons the "Golden Age" took place was the fact that (1) their system of democracy prevented women from meddling in political affairs of the city state, and (2) it did not allow foreign individuals, persons who were not native - born, (White European), Athenian citizens to participate in the democratic process.HOW VERY, VERY WISE !!
Democracy must have worked quite well in classical Athens. As I mentioned above, it was instituted in 508 BC by Cleisthenes, and not that long after strengthened and developed under the leadership of Pericles, an Athenian statesman who was a fierce advocate of democracy. During the period of Pericles leadership of the Athenian city state there was a magnificent blossoming and flourishing of culture in what is called "Golden Age of Athens". So dazzlingly brilliant were the accomplishments of Athenian: philosophers (Plato, Aristotle, Socraties), tragic dramatists ( Sopochles, Aeshylus, Euripides), Physicians (like Hippocrates - "The Father of Medicine"), Architecture (Ictinus, Callicrates), Sculptors (Phidias), Hisory (Heroditus, Thucdides) Mathematics (Pythagoras), Science (Democritus) etc; they are all revered and studied to this day, some 2000 years later. The "Golden Age of Pericles" was the zenith of human cultural achievement. There have never been anything like it since.
So my point is that ancient Athenian democracy must have had something going for it, if it was the system of government in place during the "Golden Age of Pericles". Because If the democratic political system in classical Athens was dysfunctional, chaotic, oppressive or seriously flawed in some other way, I don't think that the extraordinary advances in culture and the great amplitude of Athenian power could have taken place. Despite this, Athenian democracy had some very harsh critics in its day, in particular two of the city states prominent philosophers: Plato and Socrates. They had various objections to democracy, so in order to keep things brief I just outline one of Plato's criticisms (because Plato is still regarded by many authoritative classical scholars as being the West's greatest ever philosopher).
PLATO'S MAJOR BEEF WITH DEMOCRACY
Plato's primary objection to democracy as a system of government was that it violates the proper order of society by creating a false equality. He argues that this makes it a fundamentally IRRATIONAL form of constitution. It is based on the unjustifiable and frankly absurd assumption that EVERY CITIZEN IS EQUALLY ENTITLED TO PARTICIPATE IN POLITICAL AFFAIRS, no matter how unsuited he is in terms of ability, character, training, intelligence, personal morality and so on. HUMAN BEINGS ARE NOT EQUAL IN ANY RESPECT - PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, EXISTENTIAL, etc; WHATSOEVER If you believe that they are then you are BARKING MAD. OF COURSE they are not f**king EQUAL. MODERN SCIENCE, ANTHROPOLOGY, PHILOSOPHY AND COMMON SENSE, HAVE ALL COME TO THE SAME CONCLUSION. Human equality is a fallacy and democracy or any other political ideology grounded on that notion are doomed to fail. What it boils down to - to put it bluntly - is that within the population of 30,000 or so of citizens allowed to vote in ancient Athens, there is bound to be a fair share of: dunces, dimwits, ignorami, borderline or actual retards, bat-shit crazy fools, thugs, moral degenerates/deviants, major ass-holes and so on. Really, these individuals should - for obvious reasons - not be allowed to vote, but in a democratic system of government THEY ARE, and to add to the insanity, THEIR VOTES CARRY THE SAME VALUE as that of those citizens who are: well educated; intelligent; politically well-informed; judicious, responsible; more virtuous (generally speaking); more civilized, and in possession of greater wisdom, etc. And it gets worse because these citizens typically form a minority of the electorate.
Whitey Americans seem to have this weird, irrational "faith" in the notion that "all men are created equal." Maybe its a creedal thing from Jefferson's "Declaration of Independence"? I'm not sure, but they definately appear have this misty - eyed, delusional belief in the idea, and they are allergic to anyone who tells them it's a total pile of horse manure. So, i you're one of these Whitey Yanks is convinced that "all men are created equal" and this justifies America's "one vote-one value" democratic system of government, and Plato's objection I have sketched out above is bullshit, i have eight words for you....PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN AND VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS
DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA TODAY
In 1776, the Founding Fathers began to think seriously about what system of government would be best for America. They all had a good education in the major works of classical antiquity, and it turned out that they were very impressed indeed by the democratic model that had been adopted by the ancient Athenians. So they decided to use its core principles for the government of America. Fast forwarding now to the 21st century, America is still a democracy, but...democracy in the US today has variations on the original democratic theme that are so remote from the Athenian original that they hardly deserve the same name. American democracy has lost all the virtues of the original, but retained all of its vices. DEMOCRACY IN THE US TODAY HAS DEVOLVED INTO A VULGAR PERVERSION THAT HAS COME TO BE KNOWN AS "INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY."
"INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY"
The primary characteristics of "Industrial Democracy" are the following...
(1) REPRESENTATIVE (CONGRESSIONAL) SYSTEM - THERE IS NO DIRECT PARTICIPATION.
(2) UNIVERSAL SUFFERAGE - ALL ADULTS CAN VOTE, INCLUDING WOMEN, FOREIGN, NON-WHITE (WESTERN EUROPEAN) MIGRANT, AND EVEN
ILLEGAL MIGRANTS.
(3) MULTI-RACIAL - ALL RACES CAN VOTE: HISPANICS, BLACKS, NATIVE INDIANS, ARABS, PAKISTANIS, ASIANS, and so on.
(4) UNLIMITED POPULATION SIZE.
(5) FINANCIALLY CORRUPT, MONEYED INTERESTS HOLD GREAT SWAY (for example, the Jewish lobby).
Each of these principles is diametrically opposed to the original Athenian model of democracy.
To continue...
In America, citizens who vote typically only do so for a handful of candidates, or on a very limited number of referenda. His/her representation is scaled down by a factor of 1000s or milillions; for example, the largest American state, California, with somewhere around 40 million people, gets all of two Senators.
If you've ever wondered why the intellectual plane of American political campaigns is now lower than a snake's belly (recall "Blow-Hole" Joe's scintillating displays of cerbral prowess on the 3 or 4 occasions he was dragged out of his basement to publicly campaign as a Presidential candidate in 2020; it was like watching a stunned mullet utter a quick handful of fatuous platitudes, then abruptly disappear back into its swamp - real MENSA stuff ! The reason the standard has fallen so low is because in America every nut-case, every ignorant buffon, every chuckle-headed dolt, every feeble-minded fool, every sub-80 IQ nit-wit gets his or her vote. Moreover these persons apparantly form the majority of the US electorate. The intelligent, informed, thoughtful , common - sensical, prudent voters are a minority.
"INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY" IS RULE BY MONEY"
The vast size and scale of representation in America ensures that billions of corrupting dollars flow through the system, "tainting" even the most virtuous of law-makers, and guaranteeing a flood of corrupt , corporate media propaganda and "Fake News". "Industrial democracy is ruled by money and the will to spend it. So, who are the main players in America's "Industrial Democracy"? Well, as a matter of fact it's the Jewish Lobby, which contributes at least 50% of Democratic campaign funds and at least 25% of Republican funds (if you don't believe that, check it out for yourself, dude, - you've got a lap-top !).Wealthy American Jews spend literally 100s of millions of dollars on campaigns, ads, donations and various other political activities, all, of course, to influence the outcome in their favoured direction. The Athenian ancients would be appalled to see what their cherished democracy has come to.
Today America is on the brink of degenerating into tyranny of various forms. Plato would not be surprised in the slightest. America now has tyrannies of the rich, tyrannies of the Judeocracy and tyrannies of "Big Tech", all vying for power, all cooperating as needed to make sure that nothing like accountable and transparent government ever comes to pass. The primary objective of the rich is to stay that way, and to maintain or broaden the wealth gap disparity between themselves and the masses. The larger the wealth differential the more (relative) power they hold.
A key objective of the rich power elite is to weaken and damage America's national psyche sufficiently, and to radically diversify and deplete the nation genetically, so that they can maintain maximum control without completely destroying the capacity of the national economy to produce wealth. Sadly, America has now been completely enveloped by this insidious and degenerate form of government. The US is currently ruled by the lowest, most depraved and incompetent individuals imaginable. At the same time it is being swamped by the virtual scum of humanity - in June of 2021 alone, over 212,000 arrests ( or as the government's euphemistic propaganda calls them - "encounters") occurred at the Southern Border. Exactly how many more evaded "encounter" and entered the US illegally no one knows. To these numbers we must add the "legal" immigration of non- White, non-NorthWestern European individual who INEVITABLY change the character of the nation (cf: "Mexifornia" a disgusting shit-hole, which was once America's "Golden State"). The combined effect is dramatic. America, according to a recent study, now has an astonishing 44 million people who are foreign - born, of which just 75% are legal and 25% illegal. Nearly half of those millions were born in just 5 countries: Mexico; China; India;the Phillipines and El Salvador. (and surely not more than a percent or two of these 44 million are White Western European).
The bottom line folks is that the grand edifice that is America is collapsing as we speak !
So y'all, it's time to accept reality and give up America for lost. Toss out your red MAGA caps, put away your "Stars and Stripes" flags, your Tump pins and all your Red-White and Blue paraphenalia. America will never be great again, and anyone who tells you otherwise is either a fool or a liar. America is rotting from above and below, vermin are calling the shots from on high, and human detritus is pouring over the border.THIS IS PRECISELY HOW ANCIENT ROME FELL
Dachshund
DLM....Dachshund Lives Matter !
I agree completely.
You watch my back.
And I will watch yours.
You are dismissedYou are such a tragic dimwit.... One of the points I was making in my OP is that people like you who may be formal citizens in a democratic nation like America ought not be entitled to vote, regards; on account of their stupidity/ignorance.
And your are ingnorant, because any American with an IQ over 85 should know that...
A Repulic IS a representative democracy.
Suck...it...up...sister !
Dachshund
DLM....Dachshund lives matter !
