Democracy is Dangerous... and Stupid
Tuesday, November 2, 2010 at 10:17PM As Americans go to the polls today we only have a passing interest. Both of the US political parties stand for big government and, as Barack Obama showed, it matters not what color tie they wear or whether their teams mascot is a donkey or an elephant. Once elected they will continue to work towards more government and work for their owners, the big banks and corporations. Not that it will matter much longer anyway, since the US government is now beyond bankrupt and have taken many Americans with them.
And so our only interest today was in one particular proposal, the decriminalization of marijuana in California - which, if passed, could potentially be the beginning of the end of the horrible War on Drugs which has ruined millions of lives and destroyed freedom worldwide.
Any other interest we had in these elections were for purely personal reasons. Like just wanting Barnie Frank to lose so we'd never have to hear or see him again. But, alas, a headline just passed by saying he won. Well, maybe Pelosi will go away. We'll take anything we can get.
But the biggest problem with democracy is this: One stupid man can rarely do much damage. Sure, you could be a mentally deranged sociopath but the most damage any one person can do is to head to the town square and begin firing off rounds. No more than 20 or 30 dead. No big deal.
But when thousands or millions of stupid people "vote" for something, and they get it, then all of a sudden the power of the stupid person has just exponentially increased. This is the gravest problem with democracy.
As example, if there were no democracy in the US, what do you the think the chances would be that a significant amount of the citizenry of the US would a) feel threatened by Iraq and b) would gather together all their money and buy some planes and fly over to Iraq to start shooting people? The chances are pretty slim. It'd cost millions of dollars even just to put a rag-tag group of people together and, of course, once they got to Iraq they'd get killed pretty quick.
However, with democracy, millions of stupid people can buy into what one man, in this example, George Bush Jr. said, and through the power of democracy they can use all the resources of ALL the people in the land to do the stupid things the stupid people want.
Without democracy stupid people would be limited to using their own resources to do things they want - resources that would run out pretty quick because, well, they are stupid.
With democracy millions of mentally defective people can elect someone who they feel best represents them, and that person then has the power of millions of stupid people - despite just being one stupid person himself.
The good news is that no democracy can ever last long because the stupid people will keep doing stupid things until it finally is bankrupt and the stupid people will have to go back to just ruining their own lives instead of ruining the lives of others by committee.
Meanwhile, here at TDV we'll just keep taking advantage of all the stupid things they do. Speaking of stupid, tomorrow Ben Bernanke will be announcing his grand plan that he dreamed up about how he is going to save the world economy by, get this, printing up pieces of paper and painting pictures of dead presidents on them and issuing them at unheard of amounts until everyone "thinks" they are rich because they have so many. Then we'll all be rich.
You can take his word for it. Us, here, at TDV will be buying more gold & silver and other real goods such as agriculture and energy and two new stock recommendations that we featured in the November issue of TDV that went out last night - our portfolio is up an average of 30% in the last 3 months alone. Subscribe now to get access to all of our information and analysis on how to survive the coming dollar crash.
Jeff Berwick
Chief Editor
Reader Comments (5)
WOW! I couldn't put it any better myself!! You and I talk the same language which makes me wonder whether, when elections come about, do the people (the stupid one's) know what the various candidates are saying? Could also even be that the average candidate is a liar? A liar who become the prsident of the USA?( IE. Birth Certificate being just one of the lies?)
Thre's not much more to say as the stupid people might alredy find this all too much to follow!
since we must have some laws (goverment), just what type of goverment do you sugest for us to have?
Hello C Reed,
Thanks for your question. It is possible to have "laws" but not have government although it is difficult because people have very little access to free-market style information and most people believe it is not possible. I highly recommend a short book which I consider to be one of the most important books ever written, called The Market for Liberty by Linda and Morris Tannehill. A free audiobook of this book is available here: http://freekeene.com/free-audiobook/ .
As they point out, government is an unnecessary evil.
Here are some excerpts about the book:
“Government is an unnecessary evil and freedom is the best and most practical way of life.” Spread this idea, and we can change the world. That is why I’ve taken the time to create this audio book. These days, many people do not have time to read and it would be a shame to allow such a brilliant work to continue to gather dust on the shelves of history.
Morris and Linda Tannehill’s iconoclastic “The Market for Liberty” is one of the most important books of our time. Written originally in 1970, it is even more relevant now as I record it as an audio book at the end of 2007. “The Market for Liberty” is the antidote to years of government indoctrination, lies, and misinformation.
Unless you already consider yourself a voluntaryist, anarcho-capitalist, or free marketeer, prepare yourself for a major paradigm shift.
Well over a quarter century old, “The Market for Liberty” stands up well to the test of time. There are only a few places where the book dates itself, like any reference to prices, considering the federal governmentt has substantially inflated the money supply since it was written. There are also a few dated historical references particularly in chapters 15 and 16 as since this book’s publishing the Soviet Union has been broken up, the draft has been suspended, Americans are now able to own gold, and the US dollar has no more metal backing.
I hope you enjoy this book as much as I did. Please don’t keep it to yourself. The good people at Laissez-Faire Books have graciously allowed me to release “The Market for Liberty” in this audio book format for free. Please spread these audio files far and wide.
In the final part of the book, the Tannehills point out that the two variables factoring into how soon a laissez-faire society can be established are, “the rapidity with which the idea of freedom can be spread and how much longer our economy can withstand the effects of governmental meddling”. Certainly no one can predict the latter but in this information age, the rapidity factor has been virtually eliminated. Thanks to the proliferation of the Internet and personal audio players, this brilliant work can finally get the attention it deserves.
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since we must have some laws (goverment), just what type of goverment do you sugest for us to have?gucci cellphone