No, seriously! What is democracy and do WE actually live in one?
Nope, we don't.
We live in a democratically elected oligarchy.
Whats an oligarchy?
Well, if you don't own a dictionary, an oligarchy means we have a lot of people but the people who make the decisions come from a very small group of people in our society (which in the case of North America is "rich white men").
Thats right... we elect rich white men. Thats it. Sometimes we elect a female, or someone who isn't white... but usually (95% of the time) we elect a
So we don't actually live in a democracy...
So what is a REAL democracy?
Well, a democracy would be a society in which everyone votes... on everything.
In theory it would be possible to create such a democracy now too.
Imagine once a year, you go to a special meeting and everyone votes on a list of different issues. EVERYONE.
In ancient Greece, thats how a democracy worked. Once a month, every man and woman in Athens (the capitol) gathered in the central demos (which is where the word democracy comes from) and voted on all the important issues that bothered them.
Because we live in very large countries however, its impossible to get EVERYONE to go to one meeting...
But by using computers, television, etc... it would be possible to have such a democracy. We have the technology to make it work.
Imagine, no more corrupt politicians that we picked out of a two party system that everyone knows doesn't work... we usually vote for the lesser of the two evils.
But in a true democracy, that is not a problem anymore. The only people we can blame is ourselves.
In ancient Greece, the system worked so well it became incredibly popular... however with time, some idiot came up with the idea of "electing" leaders instead... believing that leaders could simply make the decisions for us and would not be biased by their own opinion or even their business affiliation. The oil industry for example.
That said, its now time to BASH BUSH.
Bash Bush. Has a ring to it, doesn't it?
Sort of like George W. Bullshit?
Our elected dictator, the wonderful rich (oil tycoon) man in the WHITE House is perhaps the finest example of how the system of electing leaders does NOT work.
#1, he wasn't even elected. The Florida supreme court simply ruled in his favour. Small surprise all of those judges were originally hired back in 1990 when the 1st George Bush was president.
#2, he doesn't listen to the American public. When he was finally in power he decided to cut funding for foreign spending... especially in Arab countries. The American public was against this cut in funding because they feared it would hurt America. He did it anyway. This hardline approach to foreign policy pissed off a lot of people. 6 months later, September 11th happened.
#3, he owns stocks in UNOCAL Oil... the same oil company that helped pay for his election campaign is now building a pipeline across Afghanistan.
#4, after September 11th, Bush cut funding to fire departments across America... and gave that money to the military instead. Thats why California is having problems with forest fires now. They don't have the men or equipment to fight forest fires anymore... there is also the possibility that the fires were started by a terrorist.
#5, America was against the war with Iraq unless we got an UN resolution... or some definitive proof that Iraq actually had weapons of mass destruction. Bush NEVER showed us proof. And do you know why he never showed up proof? Because there was NO WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. NONE. Zippo! Nothing. Grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns are the worst things they had, and they were pretty old ones at that... the ones America sold to Saddam back in the early 1980s. Anyway, the point is... Bush didn't listen. He attacked Iraq anyway for personal reasons.
There's a reason the mission was originally called Operation Iraqi Liberation (OIL)...