On 6/15/2014 3:25 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote:
On Fri, Jun 13, 2014 at 9:32 PM, John Mikes <jami...@gmail.com <mailto:jami...@gmail.com>> wrote:Telmo: I am a multilinguist (similar to you I suppose) and consider the word 'democracy' as the rule "Cratos" of "DEMOS". the totality of people. You (and probably others, too) mean It as a practical political format based on expression of desire by MANY (majority - called) 'voters'.John, I agree with your definition. My fear is that democracy cannot be protected from a collapse into a dictatorship of the average, and a misinformed average in the worst case. I would say that it becomes a dictatorship when it starts to legislate on things that it has no ethical basis to legislate on, usually in the guise of fear and "the public interest". Thus the wars on nouns...Although it sounds commendable, it also is an oxymoron: not T W O people want the same (interest, policy, advantage, style and 1000 more, if you wish) so the 'voting' (hoax) is a compromise about those lies of the candidates: which are LESS controversial compromise - as formulated during the campaign. (It has little impact on the real activities an elected politician will abide by indeed). Ok. One thing is for sure: a "MAJORITY" vote implies a subdued MINORITY as a rule (in the US lately arond close to half and half). Furthermore I see no "so callable" democracy neither in authoritarian (religious, fascistic) systems, nor in extreme 'populist' attempts, like the Marxist-base, communist, or socialist (called in these parts: liberal) systems. Agreed. The CAPITA:ISTIC (evolved slavery?) variations are aristocratic/feudal at best, if not aristocratic/fascistic, ie. plutocratic. (I call it Global Economic Feudalism). This is true of modern global capitalism, no doubt. What do you propose? Best, Telmo.
You and John Mikes are taking the original, literal meaning of "democracy"; rule by majority vote of the demos (which was not *all* the people, but let that pass). The more modern conception is constitutionally limited government; one in which there is a difficult to modify constitution that limits the scope of government(s) and ensures there scope for individual and community freedoms.
Unfortunately, many in middle-east ignore this last part and take democracy to mean that whoever is in the majority can impose their ideas at every level from foreign relations to what food can be eaten. It is an unfortunate feature of Islam that it doesn't recognize a separation of church and state (and neither did Christianity until it was forced upon it).
Brent -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
