Democracy is NOT a political value; it is just an arrangement by which we decide who the governors are going to be. Democracy does NOT necessarily translate into Liberty - for both the UK and the USSA show signs of "democratic despotism." Read Ilana Mercer's essay on democratic despotism in my e-book here. Note that you cannot smoke ganja without inviting police action even in Switzerland, where they have direct democracy.
In India, we suffer from democratic despotism. The problem is repressive legislation, and the solution to this is a "private law society" - as described in my recent column here. We must never confuse Law with Legislation. We need Law - the ancient law of Private Property; we do not need Legislation. Only then can we possess Liberty - despite Democracy.
Although Democracy is not a political value, we often hear talk of "democratic values." This is laughable in India, where Madamji Soniaji Gandhiji rules as an Empress, with Chacha Manmohan S Gandhi as her loyal Vizier. All political parties in India are "feudal" - based on "loyalty." They are all criminal organizations. To appreciate democratic values, we must turn to ancient Athens, where Pericles' funeral oration contains glimpses of what that society must have been like:
Our form of government does not enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. Our government does not copy our neighbors', but is an example to them. It is true that we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while there exists equal justice to all and alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized; and when a citizen is in any way distinguished, he is preferred to the public service, not as a matter of privilege, but as the reward of merit. Neither is poverty an obstacle, but a man may benefit his country whatever the obscurity of his condition. There is no exclusiveness in our public life, and in our private business we are not suspicious of one another, nor angry with our neighbor if he does what he likes; we do not put on sour looks at him which, though harmless, are not pleasant. While we are thus unconstrained in our private business, a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts; we are prevented from doing wrong by respect for the authorities and for the laws, having a particular regard to those which are ordained for the protection of the injured as well as those unwritten laws which bring upon the transgressor of them the reprobation of the general sentiment.
India is just a sham democracy, ruled by socialist pigs who possess no democratic values. As Pericles says, in ancient Athens, the administration was "in the hands of many, and not the few." Democracy seeks to diffuse power, not concentrate it. India is a centralized democracy - like the USSA, the country which champions democracy worldwide. At least the USSA has some freedoms for the states, and local government is quite free. In India, we do not even have that.
Further, the "public choice" theorists have found innumerable flaws in modern "liberal democracy," as practiced in the West. Gordon Tullock, for example, has shown how the "vote motive" is far uglier than the "profit motive." Read Tullock's The Vote Motive here - and you should.
Let us now turn to "community." This is the political value of the communists, who dream of a society of equals, governing themselves. Socialists share this value. As do nationalists, who equate nation with community. This is the value behind the BJP's Hindootva. This is the value behind radical Islam. This is also the value of the white man's Christian West.
What is "community"? At best, it is a primitive value that belongs to closed tribes where everyone knows the other. Friedrich Hayek offered a modern definition of community - "a common recognition of the same rules." But these rules could be tribal, or they could be religious. Neither kind of rules has any place in modern society.
If we want Liberty, we must ditch Community for "catallaxy" - where strangers interact, and the more strangers, the merrier. It means ditching nationalism for internationalism. It means that the only "common rule" that is recognized is that of Private Property - which forms the basis of Free Exchange.
Thus, Liberty remains the supreme political value. Neither Equality, nor Democracy, nor Community, nor Nation, matter in the ultimate analysis.
It must be Liberty alone at the pinnacle of political values.
Liberty!
What a sweet word.
[This is the second of a four-part series on Liberty. You can read the others by clicking on the "Liberty" label on the right-hand bar,]
I must say this - you are a great thinker... but almost no one in the country or the world believes in liberty and individualism. The idea of liberty in the mind of most people is worth less than the price of Coca Cola. So basically this is like talking to an empty hall. But still it is worth it.
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