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| Subject: | Democracy and Group Politics In America and India |
|---|---|
| Date: | Mon, 8 Jul 2013 09:12:36 -0700 |
| From: | Jas Jain |
Democracy and Group Politics In America and India
Dean: "Jas, The current issue of Economist has an article discussing the issue of democracy's failure to address India's ills, despite clean elections. Roughly speaking, it appears the caste system and the like transcend democracy there. I can see how you would be quite critical of democracy and favor a philosopher king."
Hello Dean,
I have never favored philosopher king; it must be your own idea of my views because of my criticism of democracy that is failing in many countries, including America, and is heading for a massive failure that is contingent on the next global depression. Since you can't think of a better alternative to democracy you keep on bringing this philosopher king, near impossibility in practice. Democracies are not as robust as people think and definitely not as good as people have been made to believe. They don't last hundreds of years (no country has had the popular democracies of today, the voting franchise extended to all, for hundred years).
Group politics is inherent in a democracy, especially in multicultural societies like America, India and South Africa. Caste, or tribal, politics is a subset of group politics that I have commented on in the past and is the most enduring of the group politics. In India people are very aware of and talk about the caste politics while in America equivalent group politics are not openly discussed. Today, the victims of the group politics in America are white Christians, in general, and white Christian men, in particular, as their traditional values are being systematically destroyed. I consider it a very dangerous situation that would explode in an economic depression, something that the policymakers don't have anyway to forestall forever.
Economic, political and social conditions in India are far worse than in America and it is futile to compare the two countries because of their radically different histories, as well as the present conditions, and there are very few lessons to be learned for one from the other. Politically, India has had a troubled history for some thousand years and its glory days, and spread of its influence, were in the middle of the first millennia. No country is more responsible for the present economic and political system in India than America. The British didn't leave because of Gandhi' movement or anything other than the American pressure. British rule in India and elsewhere was against American interests and conditions were put on the British during the WW II. The form of the American Empire is different than that of the British Empire, but America replaced Great Britain as the global economic hegemon. Just as the British Empire lasted slightly over a hundred years the same would be true of the American Empire whose beginning can be traced to 1917, American entry into WW I to defeat Germany, a contender for an empire, and Wilson's propaganda of "making the world safe for democracy."
Religion of Democracy
I had thought that it was my own conclusion, but just a few days ago I read the same conclusion in a book—The Old Regime and the French Revolution—by that genius on the subject of democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville. (Tocqueville was going to write a book about Indian society but the book was only half finished because he couldn't make the planned trip to India to complete it; some of the notes from the manuscript, based on the available information to him, are quite interesting). The proselytizing nature of democracy is not in doubt, first by the French and later by Americans under the guise of "making the world safe for democracy," a codeword for making the world more accessible and profitable for American capitalists, an essence of the American Empire. Democracy and the big money go hand-in-hand and no wonder that the hidden god of this godless religion is mammon.
The current spread of the religion is based on a Big American Lie: All men are created equal. It is inherently a dishonest ideology. Americans equate democracy to freedom and liberty a subject on which Tocqueville disagrees vehemently. Both in America and France overthrow of the king led to lot more centralization of authority under the cover of the rule of the people and an increasing welfare state over time, something one would expect in a popular democracy to attract votes.
Ills of Democracy—Division, Dishonesty, Destruction and Degradation
First, and most importantly, it divides the population. The best example is division of the voting population into conservatives and liberals in America. People with common concerns and interests are on the opposite sides. It encourages dishonest behavior, especially among business and political leaders, and over time it trickles down to the general population. It destroys traditions that have been developed over centuries and millennia. It makes people more dependent on govt than independent (Tocqueville described this dependence that fits present day American govt to a tee). People in America and India maybe materially better off today but as human beings they are more degraded compared to their grandmothers and grandfathers. I certainly don't think that I am a superior person than my grandmothers, both poor young widows under the British Raj, and there is no chance that I am going to exceed their accomplishments (some 150 descendents, most of whom are successful).
A man who is a lover of democracy is a thoroughly brainwashed individual and is in denial of the facts on the ground and history of human institutions.
Jas 
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