Initial draft
I don't believe in democracy. Partly because, as Plato is supposed to have said:
"Democracy is the rule by the ignorant;
rule by the whims of the ignorant.
That half sums up my position - but only half. My half that agrees with Plato is not that it is rule by the ignorant but that it is rule by the whims of the ignorant. In these days, we might say "Rule by the screaming media!" The half that is missing is:
The heart of people is crucial (and that is why God told Samuel "Humans look on the outside, but the LORD looks in the heart."
Heart is attitude (self-centred and self-sprotective or self-giving even self-sacrificing) and mindset (beliefs, expectations, presuppositions, aspirations, commitments, what we worship and would sacrifice ourselves for).
But what do I mean by "don't believe in". There is a difference between "believe in" and "believe that". To believe in something or Someone is to hold them as Ultimate. To believe that something has some properties or qualities is different and not ultimate. I believe in Jesus, but not in demoncracy.
I believe that demoncracy has some positive qualities. This might be summarised in the famous statement,
Democracy is the worst form of government
except for all the others.
But not quite. There is something very positive about democracy, in my view that makes it less worse than the others.
What I believe is positive about democracy is not what most people do. Most see democracy in terms of who has power - whether 'the people' do or some other whom we call "an elite" or "the status quo" or "the estanlishment" do. I do not believe that power is the main thing.
Rather, I believe that Good is the main thing: we need to do Good to the whole Creation (including all humans). But Good has many aspects. Or, put another way, Good is of many kinds - biological Good in health, social Good in things like agreement and working together, economic Good in having sufficient resource, Good responsibilities and rights, Goodness itself, and so on. (I find 23 October 2026Dooyeweerd's suite of aspects useful to separate out the different kinds of Good.)
Now, most politics ignores multiple kinds of Good and works against them, not always deliberately but by being unconcerned about them or even ignorant of them, or taking them for granted. Politicians have their minds so fixed on running the country (or, before elections, getting elected or, nowadays, winning wars whether military or cultural?) that they overlook many aspects. For many decades it was environmental Good and spiritual Good that were largely ignored by politicians, then there was a bit of a respite either side of the Year 2000, but it has now reverted.
What true demoncracy can do, better than almost anything else, is to encourage multiple views to be heard and hopefully some that value the aspects that have been ignored or suppressed by the "status quo". I value democracy for giving some power to such marginalised views, rather than giving power to 'the people'.
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Written on the Amiga with Protext in the style of classic HTML.
Created: 23 October 2026.
Last updated:
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