[MD] Shouldn't we be, like, revolting ?

[Ham Priday]

Hi Andre --


> Democracy is in real deep shit (the ligitimation crisis) because
> people do not feel that their voice (i.e their social patterns of
> value, reflecting everyday circumstaces of living [still very close
> to biological patterns of value] are represented within the
> outcome of the political (i.e. intellectual) deliberations/ i.e
> social/economic programs...when you constantly compromise
> you end up representing nobody. and this creates circumstances
> whereby people begin to scream for decisive action and the
> more frustrated they become the more extreme the demands
> will become.
> [snip]
> It will take one hell of a president or PM to stick to his/her
> own guns (pardon this expression...perhaps it is better to say
> "Be firm in his/her shoes i.e grounded in social patterns of Value)
> and reflect these in the policies thought up and put into practice.
> But alas I share Pirsig's lack of faith in grand programs.
> And perhaps this will lead to a big D.  D's do not have,
> historically speaking, a very good reputation.

I can't speak for the parliamentary system of Britain, but America was 
founded as a constitutional republic, not a democracy.  The word "democracy" 
doesn't even appear in the Constitution.  It's an ideology of "social 
freedom"  fostered by Rousseau and romanticized by Robespierre at the time 
of the French Revolution.  Social Democrats have latched onto the line "All 
men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence.  But, in fact, 
the Founders deliberately chose not to create a democracy, opting instead 
for a republic.  John Adams said: "Remember, democracy never lasts long.  It 
soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.  There was never a democracy yet 
that did not commit suicide."  Some other quotes . . .

"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the 
people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine." - Thomas Jefferson

"We are a Republican government.  Real liberty is never found in despotism 
or in the extremes of Democracy." - Alexander Hamilton

That said, "Pirsig's [or anyone else's] lack of faith in grand programs" is 
not the issue.
Economic crises and free market disruptions occur when people lose their 
sense of Value and take freedom as a given, without assuming the 
responsibilities needed to preserve it.
This is the moral equivalent of expecting to survive without making an 
effort to secure food or defending ourselves from predators.  Man is born 
with the capacity for freedom, just as he is born with intellectual and 
discriminative capacity, but such endowments are not automatically 
actualized.  They require initiative and constant vigilance on man's part, 
particularly as they apply to a collective society.

Without the freedom to fail, a society does not have the freedom to succeed. 
That's the risk we all share as investors in a free market.  "Absolute power 
corrupts absolutely" because it replaces all other values.  When we fail to 
act responsibly, when we foresake our human values and abuse freedom in our 
greed for personal power, trust and credibility are compromised, the system 
collapses, and we become dependents of the state.  Thus the laws of 
economics balance out like the laws of nature.  We cannot get something for 
nothing.  Only so long as we are willing to work for the freedom of all can 
we enjoy the benefits of a free society under a representative government. 
I'm not an economist by any means, but this is how I understand Hayek's 
"Road to Serfdom", and his principles make sense to me.

Thanks for your thoughts, Andre.  Good to meet you, too, and welcome to the 
forum.

Essentially yours,
Ham