So, this weekend will see many Americans celebrate Independence Day, and the 244 years of the founding of our nation. We Americans will be watching fireworks and/or parades, having BBQs, picnics in the park or the beach, and any other way to relax and mark this major summer holiday.
However, this year’s Independence Day may be far more somber than in previous years. 2020 is the year we saw 130,000 Americans, at last count, die from the COVID19 virus. It is also the year we saw Black Americans, and many others, say enough is enough when it comes to police brutality, systemic racism, and the overall racism throughout American history. At the same time, this is the year where everything is clearly changing - changing rapidly.
This is not the country we had on January 1st. This is not the country we had on March 1st either. Everything keeps changing so quickly, and it is hard to keep up.
Not to mention that this year is an election year - the presidential election. There are other elections in the works, of course, but the presidential election will be the big band of this year. No matter how you see it, this is pretty much the year that will make or break the United States. It has already divided Americans on two different sides of the political aisle ever more further, and it may get worse. It also brings into question what will become of American democracy, something that has been admired for decades around the world, and a big part of the American pride.
Funny thing is, what is being criticized about the current state of our democracy has been brought up before, back when democracy was first practiced..
Yeah. I’m talking about Ancient Greece, and one of its great philosophers, Plato.
If you ever read Plato’s Republic (and if you haven’t, you might want to consider), you would know that he discusses the different types of government. One of them is democracy, which he discusses right after oligarchy, that he claims leads to democracy.
Firstly, Plato didn’t seem convinced that democracy would work. He believed that in order for a state to function, one needed to understand the craft of statesmanship. He would also need to be an expert on something rather than being an expert at winning an election (sound familiar?). According to Stanford University’s School of Philosophy, Plato also believed “the state will be guided by very poorly worked out ideas that experts in manipulation and mass appeal use to help themselves win office.”
He also thought that democracy would lead to a corrupt society, almost like anarchy where nothing is wrong and people are free to do as they please. Plato explained that would lead to no one respecting each other:
The teacher in such case fears and fawns upon the pupils, and the pupils pay no heed to the teacher or to their overseers either. And in general the young ape their elders and vie with them in speech and action, while the old, accommodating themselves to the young, are full of pleasantry and graciousness, imitating the young for fear they may be thought disagreeable and authoritative.
Finally, according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a peer-reviewed academic resource, Plato thought that “equality, related to the belief that everyone has the right and equal capacity to rule, brings to politics all kinds of power-seeking individuals, motivated by personal gain rather than public good. Democracy is thus highly corruptible. It opens gates to demagogues, potential dictators, and can thus lead to tyranny.”
Eerie to read all of this from someone who lived 2400 years ago.
Plato wasn’t the only wise thinker who doubted democracy. Fast forward to the Enlightenment era, where in England, Thomas Hobbes explained that human beings tended to act out of selfishness, impulsivity, or ignorance. “We are needy and vulnerable. We are easily led astray in our attempts to know the world around us. Our capacity to reason is as fragile as our capacity to know; it relies upon language and is prone to error and undue influence,” as according to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau once wrote about voting, “the vote of the majority always binds all the rest,” as it goes in his famed The Social Contract. “But it is asked how can a man both be free and forced to conform to wills that are not his own? How are the opponents at once free and subject to laws they have not agreed to?” (pg 13) Rousseau also did not seem to be a big fan of representative democracy, and preferred direct democracy as more legit. He also once said, “were there a people of gods, their government would be democratic. So perfect a government is not for men.”
Rousseau quote echoes what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once famously said this: “democracy is the worst form of government, unlike all the others”.
So here we are, in the year 2020, with much chaos going around us, and a major election which will determine the fate of the United States. What now? Everything that was scrutinized and criticized by philosophers over the centuries is now eerily accurate for our country. One person’s freedom is another’s oppression. Say the right words, look good on TV (as per JFK during his televised debate with Richard Nixon in 1960), have the right PR firm promoting you as a candidate, have the biggest donors from those who can afford to support you, BS your way around political circles, and so on and so on. This is democracy now, in the United States, at least.
Add in bots and fake accounts on social media spreading lies, a severe lack of media literacy for all age groups, and high levels of bias among everyone - including those who swear the other side is biased, and therefore, are the real threat.
One thing I could say, and I won’t say predict because I’m no psychic. And besides, the future looks pretty obvious. But there is going to be chaos for the next four months (yes, that’s how much time we have before Election Night 2020 - can you believe it!) and as 2020 has shown us, anything could happen that could worsen the chaos.
Or even have our country turn in a new direction. Thing is, we don’t know which turning point is going to lead us down the road best for us. Or for one half of the other country, at least.
But for this weekend, let’s have a toast with our friends and family. Let us also remember those who died this year of a still misunderstood virus, due to mismanagement and lack of preparation. Let us remember the many Black Americans who died at the hands of centuries-old racism. Let us reflect on a nation forever changed, thanks to COVID19 and Black Lives Matter. Let us reflect on how, in six years, it will be the 250th anniversary of the founding our nation. What will it look like then?
Till next week, cheers!
I’m going to send off this newsletter with a video of a song from the early 90s. For those who remember, that was during when the Berlin Wall came down, the Iron Curtain collapsed, and the Soviet Union broke up. There were some good songs back then, including this one, by the German band, The Scorpions. It’s called “Wind of Change”.