I think it is also a symptom of at least serious subclinical depression. It takes a certain level of mental health to find democracy retreating, since most other systems offer a degree of mental health support in exchange for sacrificing agency.
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Kinda like how people who have an anxiety-provoking lack of structure in their lives tend to join the military or institutional religions. Believing democracy is bad or a failed idea is kinda like believing everybody should join the military or convert to a religion.
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* retreating —> interesting 2 tweets up. Not sure if autocorrect or obscure Freudian slip 😆
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Gen X witnessed the fall of the wall and a genuine if short-lived expansion of democracy. There’s a reason Fukuyama’s argument resonated so strongly then. It might have been the last such expansion. The democratic recession could easily last the rest of our lives.
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I find discussions of “no true democracy,” direct vs indirect, republic vs pure, to be tedious and nerdy distractions for those tempted by other things. As far as I’m concerned, boundary of democratic models is not set by idealized forms or mechanisms but a broad disposition...
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...created by the urge to recognize all humans as humans and be recognized as such in turn. The democratic disposition stands opposed to the dehumanization instinct in any form. In all other aspects it can be unbelievably messy and still work.
This is why to be democratic is...
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... to be suspicious of political ideologies rooted in specific ideals. To cherish an ideal is to venerate those who embody it best, and dehumanize those who don’t. It doesn’t matter whether that ideal is divinity, nobility, merit, etc... to venerate X is to dehumanize not-X
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The democratic disposition is tested most when you ask yourself if you’re willing to acknowledge humanity in its most corrupt, debased, stupid, weak, even evil individual manifestations. And of course in people very unlike yourself. This does not mean liking/relating to them...
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The democratic disposition is not a saintly or expansively ecumenical disposition. You can freely detest anybody and hold them in deep contempt. You can even be utterly misanthropic and hate everybody and still be democratic spirited. Seeing the humanity in others != liking them
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To be democratic is to recognize that others have as much right to exist as you, despite their flaws (from your POV). As do you, despite all your flaws from their POV.
Perfection, perfectibility, or conformity to others’ ideas of goodness/worth is not necessary for you to exist
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This leads naturally to a certain pacifism, a certain tendency to limit your own urges to dominate others, resistance to any impulse towards terminal destruction of others, and minimalism in defense of yourself against such tendencies on the part of others
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Humans are capable of being monsters. Democracy is how you secure your own existence without letting monstrousness in others unleash monstrousness in you. Because seeing others only as monsters, with no humanity, is the beginning of turning into one yourself.
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Don’t be a monster. Don’t let monsters get you. Beyond that...
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You have no obligation to be useful or interesting to the world.
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I personally extend my democratic disposition to all animals, so I’m vegetarian. But I do eat plants. So my generalized principle of democracy is that there are only 3 ways to relate to another living thing: eat it, accept the legitimacy of being eaten by it, or let it vote.
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While I’ll do my best to avoid being eaten by a shark, I accept the possibility as part of the natural order of things. I’m fair game for sharks, potatoes are fair game for me.
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Like the old story of the loaf cutter and the half-loaf chooser, always try to imagine yourself in both places.
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😆
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“I cut the cake, you pick your half” is basically the only good political idea anyone has ever had. Everything else is either derived from that, or self-serving behavior dressed up to look like an idea.
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This is where I think it gets tricky - democracies are far from pacifistic - if you just measure the number of soldiers deployed outside their country...democracies like war better than autocracies it seems
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There’s also the observation that they rarely fight each other. But yeah militarism are a systemic level can exist despite pacifism at the individual level.
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Fairness unfortunately has no chiral effect. Being fair does not catalyze fairness in others.
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