Inglorious Democracy

Hubris and virtue signalling pervade Western political discourse in its reverential treatment of democracy. Heinous war crimes are committed in its name; Western leaders are quick to extol its virtues; alternative systems are scoffed at by privately educated jingoists. Oft trotted out is the tired line about it being the worst form of government except for the rest.

If you’re lucky enough to find a way out of the bilious bog of capitalist realism, it’s easy enough to see that in its current sorry state it isn’t of the people, by the people nor for the people. Let’s not forget that democracy begat Mussolini, Hitler, Ferdinand Marcos, Trump and Netanyahu. It bears remembering that more than 70 million souls perished in World War II, an estimated 25-27 million of which were Soviet. Let’s not forget all the crimes of the British Empire that took place under the much lauded British parliamentary system: The Royal African Company and the transatlantic slave trade; An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger) of 1848-1852 in Ireland; The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919 in India; The Great Famine of 1876–1878 in India; The British concentration camps in the Second Boer War. Then there’s the US. Let’s never forget their apartheid and slave trading; as well as their unhinged bombing campaigns across Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, North Korea and, worst of all, dropping two atomic bombs on Japan. Those all occurred under the watchful eye of the holier-than-thou democratic states that are so lauded (by themselves) as being morally superior.

The rosy picture of great states and statesmen of the West fades away with a little digging into history. From the day we’re born until the day we die, we’re collectively gaslit to believe certain narratives. North Korea can be taken as a prime example, it’s relentlessly portrayed as an evil dictatorship while in mainstream circles it’s conveniently forgotten that the US dropped 600,000 tonnes of bombs on it. The truth gets drowned out by the total noise of normie culture. In that world, Iran and Venezuela deserve what they get because the Anglo-Americans are the good guys, they have democracies. For a lot of people, the ongoing Gaza genocide has opened their eyes to the almost total moral bankruptcy in the Western corridors of power.

Moving beyond their depraved acts, what about the calibre and class of the elected leaders? The electorate is guaranteed someone that works in the interests of the establishment. They’re glorified bank managers, stiffs in suits always ready to do the serious business of protecting the state. Of 58 British PMs, 20 went to the ultra-exclusive Eton College and over half attended Oxbridge!

If someone outside of elite circles manages to slip through the cracks, like Jeremy Corbyn, then the media mechanism goes into overdrive, slamming them every day, shoving the bourgeois opinion down the electorate’s throat. Then, if that doesn’t do the trick, they’ll find another way. If Corbyn had managed to get into power they would have continued to make his life hell. The media play a pivotal role in managing democracy, and in the UK securing the blessing of Rupert Murdoch is treated as a political prerequisite.

Waiting in the wings as a last resort are the military, police and intelligence services. Although there haven’t been any coup d’états in the UK or USA, both states possess extensive coercive apparatuses designed to neutralise threats to the established order. They have, however, been more than willing to deploy these tools abroad — most notably in Iran (1953) and Chile (1973), among many others.

There’s nothing noble about Western democracies. It’s all nothing more than a façade of legitimacy in order to maintain power and control while keeping up the pretence of democracy in order to placate the masses.

So if you ever feel like something isn’t quite working right about the system as you see them shouting and jeering in parliament (on a basic salary of £99,000), remember that it’s not meant to!