Democracy is for the Good Times

Democracy is for politics as capitalism is for economics: a flawed system that is justified only because it is generally a little less flawed than other systems.  When times are good, democracy is an affirmation of the best in humankind and a noble effort to enlist everyone in the goal of achieving a higher form of civilization.

But much of the world is currently experiencing one of the great weaknesses of democracy – the ease with which the majority is hoodwinked by a demagogue.  From Trump to Duterte to Erdogan to Putin to Netanyahu to Orban, strong man demagogues are back in vogue, using false bravado, fear and  nationalism to gain and maintain power.

The formula for their success is heavily based on uncertainty.  Even as the world enjoys one of the longest periods of economic stability in the last hundred years there is a pervasive sense that ‘winter is coming’.  The signs are out there – massive immigration, natural disasters due to climate change, power struggles between nations, Brexit and the unsettling social and economic changes that globalization has wrought.

When people are unsure of what the future holds for them they soon adopt a bunker or siege mentality.  The openness and magnanimity that have been slowly nurtured over the decades disappear in a flash.  Hard-eyed realism and a calculated self-interest take over.

Today’s uncertainties are legion – cultural changes, waves of immigration, automation, globalization, climate change, new superpower conflicts – and they rapidly erode the fragile good will of the majority.  And once that thin veneer of hope and optimism is gone, they are easy prey for the most despicable of leaders who will cynically probe and inflame their deepest fears and shamelessly encourage their basest instincts

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We need Plato’s Philosopher Kings now more than ever, but sadly there is little hope for their arrival.  The only Kings available now are the money-bloated plutocrats whose wealth and power have imbued them with massive confidence and arrogance but none of the wisdom, asceticism and humility that Plato specified.  The majority may see these megalomaniacs as realists and strong voices on their behalf, but the world has become too small for such unilateral strutting and bombast.

Democracy is ultimately at the mercy of the herd instinct.  And there is nothing more frightening than a herd gone amok and stampeding out of fear and ignorance.