Beware rank democracy

Comments

9 responses to “Beware rank democracy”

1. 

   Naif

   Oct 8, 2020 6:57 PM

   Prospefity! Covfefe for everyone!

   These people seem to have forgotten the stuff they aren’t supposed to say out loud.
2. 

   Holms

   Oct 8, 2020 7:44 PM

   “Maybe you do not care much about the future of the Republican Party. You should. Conservatives will always be with us. If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.”

   ― David Frum, Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic
3. 

   Omar

   Oct 9, 2020 1:04 AM

   The question IMHO is ‘what is it that ‘conservatives’ seek to conserve? Obviously, the existing set of social, economic and political arrangements, which they find generally agreeable. But what they do not openly campaign for is a restoration of the arrangements enjoyed by conservatives of yore. Otherwise, they would be out there urging on the reintroduction of absolute monarchy, chattel slavery, feudalism, votes for nobody (never mind votes for women), public floggings, public hangings, and all the rest of it: historically abolished by mass movements under radical or progressive leadership, but all of which the conservatives of yore fought to preserve.

   So if you want to find out what the conservatives of tomorrow will be fighting to conserve, look no further than at what the progressives and radicals of today are out there campaigning for.
4. 

   Holms

   Oct 9, 2020 5:26 AM

   Power, mainly.
5. 

   zubanel

   Oct 9, 2020 6:26 AM

   Finally! An honest republican! Thank you. Now if everyone will just look at him and think them.
6. 

   Sastra

   Oct 9, 2020 8:34 AM

   I’m not sure if conservativism made this inevitable, but I think it the foreseeable outcome of fusing a political party with conservative religion.

   Christianity is fundamentally undemocratic. Years ago in the debate chat rooms I would ask Christians if there was voting in Heaven, to decide plans or distribute resources or deal with whatever social interactions there might be. They thought this amusing. “No — God takes care of all that. He is Perfect, so His Will is supreme.”

   “But what if some souls disagree? People aren’t all the same, they won’t all want the same thing in the same way. Shouldn’t it be set up so God’s authority can be overruled?” Upon which, they’d go nuts. The whole point of our existence on earth is to learn to give up our self-will and become subservient, you see. All the people who might object to the ‘liberty, peace, and prosperity’ guaranteed by God have been weeded out.

   You entangle this mindset with a political bent towards authority over autonomy and democracy is going to start looking like a problem that needs fixing.
7. 

   iknklast

   Oct 9, 2020 9:02 AM

   I think it the foreseeable outcome of fusing a political party with conservative religion.

   Add that in with the mingling of celebrity culture with a political party, and you get…Donald J. Trump.

   It just makes me so irritated when I hear Christians claim that democracy happened because of Christianity. Really? So the Greeks and Romans were operating based on Christianity before there were any Christians? And an autocratic mindset can really lead to democracy? Sorry, not buying it.
8. 

   What a Maroon

   Oct 9, 2020 9:23 AM

   Re Sastra @ 6,

   But now Ilúvatar sat and hearkened, and for a great while it seemed good to him, for in the music there were no flaws. But as the theme progressed, it came into the heart of Melkor to interweave matters of his own imagining that were not in accord with the theme of Ilúvatar, for he sought therein to increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself. To Melkor among the Ainur had been given the greatest gifts of power and knowledge, and he had a share in all the gifts of his brethren. He had gone often alone into the void places seeking the Imperishable Flame; for desire grew hot within him to bring into Being things of his own, and it seemed to him that Ilúvatar took no thought for the Void, and he was impatient of its emptiness. Yet he found not the Fire, for it is with Ilúvatar. But being alone he had begun to conceive thoughts of his own unlike those of his brethren.

   Some of these thoughts he now wove into his music, and straightway discord arose about him, and many that sang nigh him grew despondent, and their thought was disturbed and their music faltered; but some began to attune their music to his rather than to the thought which they had at first. Then the discord of Melkor spread ever wider, and the melodies which had been heard before foundered in a sea of turbulent sound. But Ilúvatar sat and hearkened until it seemed that about his throne there was a raging storm, as of dark waters that made war one upon another in an endless wrath that would not be assuaged.

   Then Ilúvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that he smiled; and he lifted up his left hand, and a new theme began amid the storm, like and yet unlike to the former theme, and it gathered power and had new beauty. But the discord of Melkor rose in uproar and contended with it, and again there was a war of sound more violent than before, until many of the Ainur were dismayed and sang no longer, and Melkor had the mastery. Then again Ilúvatar arose, and the Ainur perceived that his countenance was stern; and he lifted up his right hand, and behold! a third theme grew amid the confusion, and it was unlike the others. For it seemed at first soft and sweet, a mere rippling of gentle sounds in delicate melodies; but it could not be quenched, and it took to itself power and profundity. And it seemed at last that there were two musics progressing at one time before the seat of Ilúvatar, and they were utterly at variance. The one was deep and wide and beautiful, but slow and blended with an immeasurable sorrow, from which its beauty chiefly came. The other had now achieved a unity of its own; but it was loud, and vain, and endlessly repeated; and it had little harmony, but rather a clamorous unison as of many trumpets braying upon a few notes. And it essayed to drown the other music by the violence of its voice, but it seemed that its most triumphant notes were taken by the other and woven into its own solemn pattern.

   In the midst of this strife, whereat the halls of Ilúvatar shook and a tremor ran out into the silences yet unmoved, Ilúvatar arose a third time, and his face was terrible to behold. Then he raised up both his hands, and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the Firmament, piercing as the light of the eye of Ilúvatar, the Music ceased.

   Then Ilúvatar spoke, and he said: ‘Mighty are the Ainur, and mightiest among them is Melkor; but that he may know, and all the Ainur, that I am Ilúvatar, those things that ye have sung, I will show them forth, that ye may see what ye have done. And thou, Melkor, shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined.’

   tl;dr: no dissent allowed.
9. 

   zubanel

   Nov 2, 2020 2:07 PM

   “Beware rank democracy”… er… unless we’re losing!