The Drama of Democracy
Today, when we talk about democracy, we're writing an obituary. We're witnessing the disintegration of democracy, the decay of democratic principles, and thus the decay of the foundations of Western culture. It's precisely when we're losing it (democracy) that we realize how valuable democracy was. It truly was. It was during the period of democracy's dominance that humanity achieved unprecedented prosperity. So much so that autocracies are now quite successfully profiting from its achievements.
Democracy dies misunderstood. Unrecognized. Unexplored. Aristotle considered democracy the worst form of government. Churchill said democracy was bad, but nothing better had been invented. Tons of books and studies have been written. But the level of misunderstanding remains off the charts.
Almost all attempts at democratic transition in the late 20th and early 21st centuries have failed. The color revolutions failed. The Maidan in Ukraine failed. Democracy failed in Iraq. The Americans were forced to withdraw from Afghanistan. The most horrific picture is unfolding in Erephia.
Instead of Fukuyama's end of history, we got Xi Jinping's end of history. The end of history for political raiders. The democratic recession has been going on for a quarter of a century, and the space for democracy on the planet continues to shrink. Even though, at the end of the twentieth century, there was complete confidence in the complete victory of democracy. What happened? Something is wrong with our understanding of the essence of democracy. If democracy is inherently attractive, then why doesn't it captivate the masses? If democracy is simply a way to ensure the participation of the majority of the population in self-government, then democracy should work in any culture. But that's not the case. Democracy doesn't take root. It doesn't work and isn't sustainable. And it's not attractive.
Historical research and theoretical inquiry tell us that democracy is inextricably linked to a specific type of culture. This type of culture is shaped by democracy, and democracy is shaped by culture. They are interconnected and interdependent. They cannot exist without the other.
Society is undoubtedly a self-governing system. But if society is a self-governing system, should there be rules, principles of self-governance? Or is it a self-governing ocean? A force of nature? Can the ocean be governed? And is it right to treat society as a force of nature? Whether it is possible or not, humanity has never ceased searching for optimal forms of governance. What is the secret of prosperity, what is the secret of justice? The search has never ceased for five thousand years. Human history is the history of the search for the ideal society. But real progress only began to occur two and a half thousand years ago.
When the Greeks began intensively developing democratic mechanisms, At the same time, under the influence of new forms of social interaction, new cultural forms and new ways of organizing society began to develop. The results of the Greeks' advances were stunning. The Greeks created the foundation and foundations of a new civilization. Before the Greeks, the world was dominated by a civilization based on the despotic will of powerful rulers. The Greeks created a civilization commensurate with the private will of individuals. These are two completely different civilizations. Only the second civilization, created by the Greeks, is commensurate with the laws of the cosmos and the universe. If we recognize the fact that consciousness is not the product of the brain of an individual, but rather the product of social activity, then our attitude toward democracy changes radically. Within the model created by the Greeks, thinking is accomplished by the efforts of the entire society, the efforts of a vast number of people, multidirectional yet purposeful. If Adam Smith spoke of the invisible hand of the market, then we speak of the invisible power of consciousness.
Therefore, the model created by the Greeks imbues society with incredible dynamism and strength, unlike the model created by despots, where one tries to think for everyone. Then society turns into a frozen, endless cycle of violence. And so we see: The tangible result of despotic rule: gigantic cultural monoliths, capable of easily swallowing and digesting any reformist, civilizing efforts. How could it be that these monoliths have survived since the beginning of time? While Europe frolicked and reveled in the successes of progress, the monoliths waited silently.
The speed of thought, diversity, and variety of possibilities within a democracy are incomparable and incomparable with the speed of thought of a despot.
Naturally, despotisms have fallen hopelessly behind democratic countries. Achilles certainly outpaced the tortoise. But the tortoise managed to bide its time.
Of course, democracies have relaxed. They've decided that everything is falling from the sky. And while democracies once dominated the planet, they now face complete absorption by the Global South, but they don't even realize it; they don't sense that they're standing on the brink of destruction. They still think they can continue merrily hopping around. And now we need to summarize our findings and discuss whether democracy can be preserved or whether it should be replaced by other ways of organizing society. The general logic should be this: it's impossible to place such a perfect instrument in the hands of the ignorant. But if society isn't rid of ghosts, drama will degenerate into tragedy.Democracy cannot be saved; it has dissolved in the chaos of the second mass uprising. But it won't be so easy to get rid of democracy either. This last statement is highly controversial. Europe is rapidly losing its democratic identity. European consciousness is rapidly becoming disorganized. Just like in the Global South. This means we face a painful disintegration of democratic consciousness and the disintegration of Western culture. Disorganization. That's the diagnosis. The gradual replacement of democratic values with the values of political raiders. Chaotic consciousness.