Democracy is Barbaric

For reasons unfathomable to me, the majority of the West seems to be in accordance on at least one thing; namely, that democracy is one of the most, or even the most, laudable political goal. Invocations of democracy are commonplace in contemporary political debate, as can be seen by the British Labour MP Tony Benn's accusation that "The Tory Party is the enemy of democracy." Political parties fall over themselves to praise democracy and dub themselves its greatest proponents and defenders. And yet, to all rational, enquiring minds who do not need recourse to the prevailing superstitions of the day in order to draw a conclusion about the nature of democracy, democracy can be seen quite clearly as the worst value bequeathed to us by the Enlightenment.

Democracy is not civilised. Democracy in not enlightened. Democracy is not the fairest, most rational, or even pragmatic way to run a society. Democracy is barbaric.

Individuals have hierarchies of preferences. That is to say, they value certain things more highly than others, and will allocate higher time preferences to their most desired goals. Hierarchies of preferences inevitably inform how an individual will vote in a democratic election, as they will value certain state-run/provided services more highly than others. But before I get to how democracy is simply majoritarianism and theft, let us look at a smaller-scale example. Let us say that person a has £200, and that persons b and c do not. Persons b and c desire a television that costs £150, so they hire a criminal, person d, to rob person a and but the television for them (person d then keeps the remaining £50.) Theft and violence - two unethical actions - are employed in order for the majority of people to achieve their desired ends. Who wouldn't condemn such actions?

Democracy functions very similarly to this petty gangsterism. Individuals who cannot achieve all of their desired ends through their own actions instead desire the state to achieve them for them. Competing criminal gangs (otherwise known as political parties) compete for the votes of the electorate by attempting to offer policies that will appeal to enough people to get them voted into office/power. Once in power, the criminal gang then sets about stealing people's money to a) pay their own wages, b) enforce their regulations and authoritarian laws, and c) implement policies that will serve a) special interests, and b) hopefully enough people to get them voted back into power at the next election.

Democracy functions by the majority choosing which criminal gang will engage in theft and provide them with the social services that they desire with the money the state has stolen. Majoritarianism and theft are not enlightened, civilised, or rational. They are barbarisms left over from foolish Enlightenment thinkers like Rousseau and Thomas Paine. Democracy must fail before humanity can progress.