It's a seductive idea, and part of the reason I think that both Totalitarianism and Libertarianism have been so popular now and formerly. Totalitarianism tends to come from this idea that if we just give this one person the power to fix all these problems... and Libertatianism says the best person will rise to the top, and most libertarians somewhere think that person's going to be them, and they really could just fix everything if they had the money.
The thing is, if you have one person or a small group of people with all the political agency, no one else has any at all, and I can always see myself as one of the powerless before I can see myself as one of the powerful.
Pfft. It's only boring to people with no vision. a well crafted democracy is like making jewelry. The fact that it works is part of its beauty (sorry, jeweler here and it's not too interesting, but not at all boring).
In my own novel, I've been having difficulty showing democracy as a good thing from the point of view of a good monarch who is watching her power slip away. It's so manifestly against the interests of my main character. It's strange going.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-09-04 02:59 am (UTC)The thing is, if you have one person or a small group of people with all the political agency, no one else has any at all, and I can always see myself as one of the powerless before I can see myself as one of the powerful.
Pfft. It's only boring to people with no vision. a well crafted democracy is like making jewelry. The fact that it works is part of its beauty (sorry, jeweler here and it's not too interesting, but not at all boring).
In my own novel, I've been having difficulty showing democracy as a good thing from the point of view of a good monarch who is watching her power slip away. It's so manifestly against the interests of my main character. It's strange going.