Okay, so after reading this some three or four times, I think I'm finally able to come up with a pretty legitimate response to Carl Becker's article "Democracy" (especially for not being very politically charged).
I truly believe that we, especially as Americans who are constantly told we are lucky enough to live a democratic lifestyle, need to really understand the power that we may or may not have in the so called "land of the free." I completly agree with Becker's statement about how a democratic way of life can be very destructive to society (he referenced Napoleon, Caesar, and Stalin). Some people may even argue that we are victims of this "destruction" in the form of President Bush and low approval rates, some would. But what also came to mind, was, how well would a society actually be able to function without leaders? I think if we were to truly become a government ran by the people (non-politicians) the country would just go to shit, and thats putting it politely. Yes there are societies out there that are completly ran by the people with equal distribution of power (thanks Anthro 104 for teaching me that one!), but those are small scale societies. I feel that more industrialized societies need structure in order to get by.
Sure, it has its downfalls, but what government doesn't? It's simple fact that we will never be able to create a government that is completly approved by all people, but what we have is pretty kick ass if you ask me. Not too many government would allow a bunch of 19 or 20 year olds the freedom to talk about the government like we have.
Hopefully I didn't butcher this article too much!
That's All for Now Kids!!
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Haha. I like your response. I think it is a frank way of putting things, but accurate none the less. I can definitely admit to taking for granted the kick ass system we have here. Luckily, I realized that and appreciate that I have the freedom of speech and can speak out if I choose.
ReplyDeleteI think your point about the size of our country and how that makes a "true" democracy difficult is an excellent one. At the same time, Becker wasn't necessarily saying that democracy can lead to Stalinism, etc, just that if you DEFINE democracy as a govt supported by the people, then that would include some systems (like Nazi Germany, where most of the people supported Hitler) that are pretty horrific. That's NOT democracy in Becker's opinion. We choose our leaders, and that, it seems, is the thing that matters the most. It's not perfect, but it ain't entirely bad. Nice post.
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