If Democracy were a panacea that leads to
progress, liberty and prosperity, every corporation in the world would be run
by the rules of Democracy … but none is. That's because the mandate of a
corporation is to produce goods or services or both while remaining profitable.
For this to happen, the corporation was designed as a hierarchical system where
authority flows from top to bottom, and dissent is presented as suggestion, not
criticism––not even constructive criticism.
In fact, this is how society itself used
to be organized. There was practically no opposition to the governing system
till such time that megalomaniac feudal lords appeared on the scene and
developed the kind of insatiable greed that led them to abuse their powers.
They did so to satisfy their hunger for material possession and for more of the
powers they craved to accumulate. In turn, such development caused the masses
of subjects to revolt and demand that there be change.
After numerous attempts, the masses were
finally able to force the lords to institute a kind of mechanism through which
the masses were allowed to participate in the way they were governed. Instead
of issuing decrees by whim on the spur of the moment, the lords now governed
with the consent of the people whom they were consulting. And this was the
beginning that led to a democratic system of governance whose main feature has
been a Bill of Rights that safeguarded the liberties of individuals.
That development took place because the
people asked a simple question: Who owns this land, anyway? When the people
answered that the land was owned by those who live on it and work it to produce
the goods that everyone needs to live on, the people realized that the land was
theirs and they had the clout to force a change. The bottom line is that the
masses moved to bring about change because the feudal lords were increasingly
taxing them at higher rates. But the byproduct of the change went beyond that.
It caused the birth of the democracy that eventually did away with the feudal
system and replaced it.
Whereas this history happened to the
governance of political jurisdictions, something resembling it happened to
corporations centuries later. The change came about when it was realized that
the shareholders, and not management, owned the corporation. This is how and
why a shareholders' Bill of Rights is now incorporated into the charter of most
corporations. But a huge gulf still separates the way that a corporation and a
democratic country are run. Despite the fact that the shareholders were
recognized as the ultimate authority, the management of a corporation still
retains immense powers, running the day-to-day operations of the corporation,
and viewing dissent as subordination that calls for automatic firing.
Because nothing remains the same, much has
conspired to diminish the allure of the democratic system of governance. The
effect has been that many around the world have started to experiment with new
systems. Out of these, two trends have distinguished themselves. One trend,
recently adopted by the previously autocratic regimes, has been to emulate the
hierarchical system by which corporations are run. The other trend has been the
transformation of Democracy into a burlesque kind of joke such as you can see
in America and Israel at this time.
In fact, there is a recent article that
gives a good idea as to how that spectacle is unfolding. The article came under
the title: “Lebanon Prepares for War While Israel Is at War with Itself,” and
the subtitle: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs a tough image to survive
September's elections. But did his posturing just cross the line?” It was
written by Matthew Petti and published on August 29, 2019 in the National
Interest.
Reading the article, you discover the
horrifying reality that those who continue to pretend they adhere to the
democratic system of governance, can no longer make a political move without
intertwining it with deceptive propaganda and war-like violence that ranges
from “managed tit-for-tat skirmishes” to full blown wars conducted by armies
that go as far as direct their fire at the civilian population. What follows is
a condensed version of some passages in Matthew Petti's article, highlighting
that horrible reality:
“With elections in Israel coming up,
Netanyahu is cultivating his image with a military posture. The escalation
conducted by Israel in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon is part of a campaign done by
the IDF and Netanyahu to send a message to Iran. There is also a domestic
component to this as Netanyahu is locked in a death match. The public messaging
is meant to demonstrate to the electorate that Netanyahu is protecting them
from Iran. He is currently facing corruption charges, and parliamentary
immunity may be his last chance to avoid jail. Shifting attention to the
northern front could also help his re-election campaign. Netanyahu and his
staff were desperately trying to contact Trump to dissuade him from meeting
Zarif. Netanyahu is worried about US-Iranian detente. If you are Netanyahu, you
would exploit the current situation to its utmost, by dragging the country into
a conflict”.
This is what Democracy has degenerated
into. The rot is pronounced in Israel more than anywhere else because Judaism
nurtures the ingredient that kills comity where it finds it.
Many places in the world –– throughout
time and space –– were ruined by that ingredient. America that was thought
capable of withstanding the Jewish onslaught and thrive, succumbed to the
deadly ingredient like everyone else.