Democracy or Dictatorship: Which is better?
It’s almost blasphemous to question the great democracy, isn’t it?
Since before most of us were born, governments have tried to figure out ways to stop us from questioning democracy as a political model. But isn’t it time we faced up to some painful truths?
What is the general feeling of living in a democracy? How often do you hear people’s frustration at the stagnant nature of the system and the leaning of government decisions toward corporate rather than human motivation?
I want to clarify here that I am not comparing western governments with the Russian or Chinese governments. To do so would mean judging personalities and policies. I am just talking about the empty, bare-bones system here. Democracy or dictatorship, which is better?
In late 2021, The Australian government pulled out of a submarine deal with France, instead choosing to purchase ‘nuclear submarines’ from the U.S. in a deal worth $90 billion.
Here’s how the conversation would have almost definitely gone.
Joe: Hey Boris, I’ve come up with a great way to sell that bloke down under some nuclear subs.
Boris: Oh yeah, blardy blardy. Shall we eat something to celebrate?
Joe: Just listen, you posh bastard. We all know the Aussies are desperate to be on the world stage. How about we create a new Facebook group — just the three of us, and we’ll call it…
Boris: (interrupting) Ooh, yos, yos, we’ll call it AUKUS. It’s all our blardy names together.
Joe; Right. Then we’ll just tell them to join the group they need to buy subs from us. Fuck those French bastards.
Later, once the dastardly deal was done, a big question would have arisen:
How are we going to sell this to the people?
Twenty four hours before the announcement of the deal, a press release was issued:
Top government officials in Australia were called to an emergency meeting today for news supposed to be announced out of the U.S. at 7:00 a.m. Thursday morning, Australia time. That’s 5:00 p.m. Eastern time today, and it sounds like a big deal (SMH)
They even invited the opposition leader and his entourage. That can only mean one of two things in this day and age: a war or a major upheaval in the international order. (Source)
Cue: Australian people shit themselves at the possibility of a war with China
As it turned out ‘the massive news is that Australia is buying some submarines.
That’s right. Don’t complicate it. That’s precisely what happened.
Australia is buying submarines. No war, no emergency. Just swiping their visa card down America’s arse-crack.
So why the massive hoohaa?
It’s because we live in a democracy, that’s why.
One benefit of a dictatorship is that shit just gets done.
If Putin wants to buy submarines, Putin just buys submarines.
- He doesn’t need to create a new Facebook group with a clever name.
- He doesn’t need to put on some amateur dramatics act about another country being a threat.
- He doesn’t need to justify the move to his political sponsors or his voters.
- He doesn’t need to run it past parliament.
He just buys the subs.
Has anyone noticed that countries like Russia don’t go around constantly flinging excrement at other countries? To understand why you have to consider that:
Any leader in a democratic system is in danger of losing their grip on power at any given moment.
Therefore, every move they make has to be justified. And this is usually executed using media narratives.
Rupert Murdoch is a perfect example of a corrupt media stooge who uses his information platform to plant media narratives on behalf of political figures. In exchange, they grant him political favours. Welcome to democracy, folks.
People complain about how corruption happens in a dictatorship, and they claim this is because one person has absolute power. But this just isn’t true.
- In our democracy, it is legal for a company to contribute financially to a politician’s campaign in exchange for political favours. It’s called lobbying. That’s right, corruption is not only legal but encouraged.
- In our democracy, it is perfectly legal for a tobacco company to increase the addictiveness of cigarettes. In Australia, 70% of the price of a packet of cigarettes goes to the government. They use it to prop up the budget and announce a ‘surplus’ for political reasons. Then, they make nicotine vaping illegal because it is a gateway drug to tobacco (which is legal).
- In the U.S., it is legal for politicians who make decisions on military action to buy shares in defence companies and, therefore, make vast amounts of money by voting to send their country to war.
- In the U.S. it is legal for private prison administrators to lobby the government for harsher criminal penalties to increase their’ staff’.
- It is legal for those prison companies to pay ‘prisoners’ less than a dollar an hour to produce government items such as military equipment and items for other private corporations such as Mcdonalds, Wendy’s, Starbucks, Walmart…
We are sold the idea that dictatorships are inherently corrupt, but they aren’t. Democracy is as corrupt as any dictatorship you will find. It’s just that the corruption is sanctioned.
In a democracy, if you want to get something good done, there is always a price to pay.
- If I want to get my human rights bill through, I must wine and dine several other people. To get them to agree to vote for my bill, In turn, I have to agree to vote for their pro-fracking bill or whatever.
- Politicians get drunk on the job (alcohol is provided 24/7 even during critical decision making) and vote according to the deals they have made rather than according to their beliefs.
- These people are paid six-figure salaries, which they then receive for life following four years of service. They have the cheek to call the welfare system parasitical.
Our political system is sick. It is custom-designed for greedy people to make personal profits.
I’m not going to say here that dictatorships are without their flaws, but I’m not comparing countries here. I am comparing their systems.
Dictatorship is not new. Throughout history, there has been a lot more single-person leadership than democracies.
Has every dictatorship been terrible for the people? No way.
There have been benevolent leaders and cruel leaders. It’s a 50/50 shot.
But what are the chances of getting a hundred benevolent politicians in parliament? I’d say the chances are slim.
I often wish that a benevolent alien dictator would land on earth and just take over, as in Arthur.C.Clarkes novel, Childhoods End. Why on earth should we care whether one person is in charge or many as long as it benefits the people?
A democracy is supposed to represent the interests of the people but anyone who still believes that happens is living on their own planet far from reality.
Some might suggest that the problem with Dictatorships is that they can only rise to power through some kind of violence.
This is probably true. But ask yourself this:
How do you think democracies come into power?
Do you think they just knock on the door politely?
Excuse me. I’m coming to take over your country. Do you mind?
Democracies and dictatorships are exactly the same in how they come to power — through violence.
- The difference between how they operate is that one just operates, and the other has to justify every move politically.
- The level of corruption is not dependant on the system but on the people that are voted into that system.
In summary, the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that several arseholes decide the rules instead of one.
Do with it what you will.
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