Advancing Beyond the Democracy

Many Americans consider America to be a "democracy". However, the people who created America claim to have created a "Republic". They considered a democracy to be an unstable form of government. James Madison considered a democracy to be a "tyranny of the majority".

The founders of America considered the common people to be too irresponsible, ignorant, stupid, and easily deceived to manage their nation's affairs or select government officials. America's founders wanted to give the citizens influence over their nation, but they did not want the citizens to gain complete control. They also worried that the government officials would get too much control.

America's Constitution was designed to create a balance of power between the government officials and the citizens. Two of their goals were:

1) Prevent government officials from gaining too much control

One idea they came up with was to break the government into lots of pieces and not give any official much authority. This has the disadvantage that when there are disagreements between the officials, nobody has enough authority to stop the argument and make a decision. This is why some issues are debated for years before a decision is reached, and some issues are never dealt with.

2) Prevent citizens from gaining too much control

To prevent the citizens from getting too much control, the government officials are supposed to follow the Constitution, not the wishes of the people, the business owners, the military, or the "special interests".

If the Constitution was a set of well-defined, highly detailed, and intelligent rules, it would be possible and sensible for the government officials to follow the Constitution. Unfortunately, the Constitution was simplistic even in 1789 when most people were self-employed farmers. For example, the Constitution did not properly deal with the issue of the money supply, slavery, political parties, or the creation of secret police forces, such as the CIA.

And of course the Constitution never dealt with the issues of television, nuclear war, birth control, abortion, computer viruses, or public transportation systems.

The Constitution may have set up the best government in the world as of 1789, but that is not saying much when you consider that most of the world had monarchies at that time.

The Constitution was too simplistic for the government officials to follow. The men who wrote the Constitution knew that there was no possible way that they could create a set of rules that would deal with all of the issues they were facing in 1789, and they certainly could not create a set of rules for issues that would appear in the future.

They thought they had dealt with this problem by giving government officials the ability to interpret the Constitution and add amendments to it. Unfortunately, the Constitution was so vague that it had to be interpreted all the time, and every time it is interpreted, it opens the government up to influence by the common people, businesses, the military, and other groups. Furthermore, when a government official is free to interpret the Constitution, people can bribe, blackmail, and threaten him to interpret it a certain way.

If the Constitution was a well written, detailed document, every government official would keep a copy in his office so that when he had to deal with an issue, he could look in the Constitution to get guidance on what to do. Unfortunately, the Constitution is such a simplistic, vague document that I wonder if many government officials have even bothered to read it.

The Constitution is supposed to be defining what America is, and it is supposed to be providing guidance to the government officials, but there are restaurants that provide more detail for their employees on how to cook hamburgers and clean their equipment. And the level of detail that scientists and engineers have in their handbooks is greater by orders of magnitude.

Governments must be continuously updated

Businesses are aware that nobody can create a set of rules that are so flawless that they deal with every possible situation. As a result, businesses frequently evaluate and revise their rules. However, our attitude toward government systems is completely the opposite. Anybody who suggests revising a government system is considered a traitor. The end result is that once a government is created, it is never updated.

When will the human race realize that updating a government system is a necessary part of a modern nation? When do we move beyond this primitive attitude that updating government documents is treasonous?

The fact that the American government officials and the American people are following an outdated and simplistic Constitution is a sign that not many people pay attention to what is going on around them.

Unfortunately, there is nobody in the government with the authority to revise the Constitution, and most of the population will not even admit the 9-11 attack was a scam, let alone face the issue of whether the Constitution needs revision, and if so, what the revisions should be.

Everybody panders to the common people

Madison's concern about the tyranny of the majority has come true. The majority of people have acquired total dominance over America, including our school system, our media, and our economy. The news organizations, for example, must provide simplistic and sexually titillating news, or they lose subscribers. Businesses use trial and error to figure out which products and services the people want, rather than take into account which products and services have value to our lives and our society. Schools pass out diplomas with no regard to whether the students have any useful education or skills.

Americans businesses, schools, government officials, and news organizations must pander to the people or else the people will take their money and support to somebody who will pander to them.

America is like a kindergarten in which the adults obey the children. Furthermore, the lack of respectable leaders is allowing millions of people to abuse the nation, both legally and illegally.

The situation in America is so pathetic that the majority of people do not realize that they control this nation. For example, during every election millions of voters demand that they regain control of their nation.

There is a widespread belief among the American people that they are helpless, innocent victims of _______ 
(Fill in the blank) Corporations, Special Interests, Illegal Aliens, Republicans, Democrats, the Military Establishment, Jews, Terrorists, Bankers, Extremists, Homosexuals, Hollywood.

The only way a politician can get elected is to pander to the voters by telling them something similar to:

"I promise to take the government out of the hands of the special interests and give it back to the people! America is the greatest nation in the world! I love the American people! The American people are the greatest people in the world!"

The voters would never tolerate a political candidate who tells them the truth:

“You people already have control of this nation, including its school system, its economy, and the news reports.

“You decide which magazines to subscribe to; which companies get your money; whether you will support gambling operations; which books and DVDs you will purchase; and which television shows you will watch.

“You created your government, and every few years, you elect hundreds more people to it. If you would elect respectable people, then the government would become respectable.

“The American government is a mess, but you are responsible, not the Military Establishment, the Republicans, the Democrats, the Corporations, or the special interests.

“Each of you ought to slap yourself in the face, and try to do a better job in this upcoming election, or else stop voting.”

In order to get elected, a political candidate must lie to the people and make absurd promises. Is it any wonder that some of the politicians who get elected look down on the common people as "useless eaters" or "talking animals"?

News reporters are in the same dilemma as politicians. A news reporter who reported the news in an honest and intelligent manner would find that only a small number of people are willing to look at his reports. The news reporters who are popular with the majority of people are the ones who provide simplistic, sexually titillating news reports. Would you be surprised to discover that some news reporters consider the American people to be "useful idiots" or "organic robots"?

Let's move beyond the Democracy

The creation of America is a complex and interesting topic. I brought the subject up to point out that the designers of the Constitution did not believe a democracy was a sensible government, and they had no intention of letting the common people dominate the nation. If they could see what has happened to America, I bet that they would be wishing they could rewrite the Constitution.

All throughout history we can find people complaining about the ignorance and irresponsibility of the common people. For example, in the year 1928 the U.S. Army Training Manual No. 2000-25 criticized a democracy as an unstable form of government that results in "mobocracy".

So let's stop accusing "The Elite" of being the only people who consider the common people to be incompetent, ignorant, selfish, irresponsible, and obnoxious. Instead, we should be discussing what to do about this problem.

How is the world going to improve when every nation is dominated by people who don't care about corruption, unwanted babies, crime, abuse of their children by businesses, and the use of other races as a cheap source of labor? How can any nation deal with its problems when it is dominated by people who only talk about the Academy Awards, football games, and Michael Jackson?

When are we going to face the fact that Jesus, America's founding fathers, the writers of the US Army Training Manuals, and millions of other people are correct that the common people don't care about the world's problems, never will care, and will refuse to help make the world a better place?

Let's face the fact that democracies are lousy forms of government. Let's try to make something better. Let's try to learn from our mistakes and design a better government.