Peaceful Politics: Exploring The Brutal Nature of Republics and Democracies (Part 1)

Revolution of ideas for non-violence

This article is the beginning of a series where I will point out some of the problems in modern political philosophy and shed light on some possible solutions that can help us reverse the ominous path that our species is walking. In today’s selection we are going to discuss the brutal nature of republics and democracies, and consider how both are varying forms of slavery, which have clung to the human psyche as remnants from our mundane past.

If the primary goal within a society is to achieve happiness, safety, freedom and peace, then we can surely say that there is not a place on earth where this has been accomplished. Coincidentally, almost every charted geographical area on the planet is micromanaged by organizations who claim responsibility for ensuring the happiness and safety of the people. These organizations call themselves “governments”, and it is fairly obvious by now that they are absolutely horrible at their jobs and are actually responsible for the majority of the world’s suffering. It doesn’t matter if it’s an open dictatorship, a democracy, a republic, a communist state or a system of mercantilism, they have a failed miserably in creating a free and peaceful society.

With all of this being the case, I find confusing that the debate between republics and democracies is still controversial, considering that these systems have both amounted to nothing more than modern day serfdom. In republics, we are forced to put our trust in representatives who don’t have our best interests in mind, while in democracies we are subject to the whims of the majority, and these whims are of course controlled and manipulated by those in society who have the most control and influence. It seems that either way, the average people really don’t have a say in what happens in their society and they are typically subject to various forms of oppression that are justified by the State.

Oftentimes the debate arises, is America a republic or a democracy? I would argue that it has been a little bit of both, as I’m guessing this is where the “republican” and “democrat” branches come from. In reality, our form of government has properties of both a republic and a democracy. Sadly, when we look at the government today, we can say that we unfortunately end up with the worst of both worlds.

Why is it that both of these systems fail to protect the rights of the people? Because both systems give certain groups of people authority over other groups of people and both systems allow that privileged group to initiate force without consequence. In a republic, the privileged group is the representative, while in a direct democracy the privileged group is the mob and the aristocrats who manipulate the mob through media rhetoric and bread and circuses.

Let’s start with the democratic system of government. At face value this system sounds great, holding votes and getting everyone involved in the society is a wonderful thing. However, this form of government is extremely corruptible, which is why it is praised by aristocrats and bureaucrats alike. Even in a pure system of direct democracy where there are no politicians, the citizens are still vulnerable to being manipulated into making decisions that are against their best interests. Likewise, those who happen to disagree with the whims of the majority are subject to the tyranny of the mob, which is why direct democracy is sometimes called mob rule.

A republic is put forth as an alternative to this system. In theory, a republic offers “representatives”, which are people who are said to be selected in order to preserve the rights of the people. Apparently, these “representatives” are given the power to direct the course of civilization in order to protect the rights of the minority from tyranny of the majority. Unfortunately, this never happens because republics are also extremely easy to corrupt, due to the fact that so much power is concentrated in so few hands, and gives those in power the ability to commit crimes and get away with them.

Even if the founders of a country and the first few generations of rulers are the epitome of moral virtue, eventually a psychopath will come along and grant himself powers and immunities, which all future psychopaths will further exploit, until the whole system is eventually corrupted and filled with psychopaths.

This is nothing new; this has happened constantly throughout history, all the way from the ancient Greek and Roman empires to every society that has attempted to replicate these systems. In fact, these ancient societies are the root of this age-old argument between republics and democracies, with the republic being represented by Rome, and democracy being represented by Greece. If we bring this argument into the context of these ancient empires, we will find that this debate is really a comparison of the aristocratic forms of government that failed in Rome and Greece thousands of years ago. Each of these cultures had a tradition of slave owning and subjugation, so although they were starting to scratch the surface of ideas like autonomy and liberty, their actions showed that they had a very primitive level of respect for human life and the values of non-aggression.

There is no reason why our understanding of political philosophy needs to be stuck in the ancient world, when we have advanced and progressed in nearly every other aspect of our development. For us to truly become a civilized society, ideas like authority, justified sinning and subjective standards must be left behind and associated with oppressive traditions of our past like cultural slavery and arranged marriages, for example. A civilized society does not solve their problems with weapons and cages, so until we evolve out of this paradigm and discover a new way of doing business, we really cannot say that our world is civilized.

J.G. Vibes – is an author, and artist — with an established record label. In addition to featuring a wide variety of activist information, his company — Good Vibes Promotions promotes for electronic dance music events. You can keep up with him and his forthcoming book Alchemy Of The Modern Renaissance, at his Facebook page. AOTMR will be released this spring, thanks to Leilah Publications. This project features nearly 100 different essays, just like this one, that cover a wide variety of topics. These essays give historical and philosophical insight into the many important issues that our generation faces. From banking cartels and alternative currency to eugenics and the drug war, AOTMR offers a complete and comprehensive breakdown of the counter culture’s struggle.