Democracy is Just an Idea: Power to the People
As we veer towards autocracy, with the United States government in the lead, it is good to remember that democracy did not emerge because it was a good idea. It was not part of some progressive trajectory thought up in the academies and other hallowed halls. It was in reaction to a widespread disgust by the people with these selfish, falsely paternalistic tyrants. They were bloated and gross and poured resources down the gullets while the mass of people barely eked by.
This was the case in France in 1789 and even in the United States a few years earlier in their shirking of monarchical control. Similar revolutionary fervour was happening amongst Dutch patriots (1785), mend of modest means in Geneva against Franco-Catholic imperialism (1782), and even in little Corsica, where nationalists there deposed French rule (1755 – 1769). These were related and spurred each other on in different ways, but this was not unique. Europe has seen it before in the English Civil War (1642 -1651) with the execution of King Charles and the first stab at linting monarchical power. It happened in Haiti from 1791 to 1804, where a slave uprising against colonial rule led to the independent republic. There was the Mexican War of Independence from 1810 - 1821 that ended Spanish rule. And, lest we forget, there was the Russian Revolution of 1917 that overthrew Tsar Nicholas II and ended centuries of Romanov rule. There as a similar seemingly populist revolution in China (1949) and, more recently, the Iranian Revolution in 1979. All of these, with compelling distinctions, were playing off the despicable and ignorant rule of monarchs who seemed content to let us all ‘eat cake.’
The power is with the people. We do not need to accept these tyrants and bow down to their baubles of wealth. It is all so gross, and we’ve been trapped in it with the absurdity of the worship of the rich and famous across our screens, with the false aspiration to own a multi-billion-dollar yacht, of the spellbound state we find ourselves in when caught within all the celebrity worship. We have been blinded by all the shine and forgotten just how gross they all are. These are aft, ridiculous people who shit and fuck the masses and laugh about afterwards. Just like at P Diddy and all the people who went to his appetites. Look at Epstein and all the men who wanted his underage victims. Look at Musk and his trail of women and lost children. Look at Trump and all the things he’s grabbed. These people are gross abortions that reflect human’s worst impulses. They are ridiculous.
We need to throw them in the trash heap of history and prove, once again, that we have the power to make sure that all of us have opportunities to do better for ourselves, to do better for our children, to do better for our families, better for our communities. We should be looking out for all of us and making sure that we all get a fair shake. That’s all we want—a fair shake to try to care for one another.
Democracy did not emerge because it was a good idea. It emerged because people were fed up with the monarchies and selfish, repulsive rulers who did so little for us. They shoved us down and made us subservient. Yet, we are not. We have the power.
When we come together and fight against these abusive, sickening rulers, we win.
We have the power. We only need to come together against the tyrants. We need to love and care for one another rather than the abysmal material wealth these tyrants falsely promise. We need to show that it is through our most common humanity that we can assume the mantel of power and, instead of falling sway to the laws of hegemony, flatten and spread resources so that everyone can live a fruitful life.
We have the power to rise up as a mighty coalition to work against tyrants, work against tyranny, work for the benefit of all people, work towards the benefit of all of our sisters and brothers, work toward everyone’s benefit so that we all can have access to cheap nutritious food, access to excellent childhood and lifelong education, access to world-class healthcare, a nice, safe home, and good prospects for our children to exceed what we have done.
