Democracy And Elitism

That's democracy. Elitism is the antiquated idea that elites, people perceived as having high intellect, special skills or wealth, deserve more influence or authority, and democracy is its exact opposite. Here's a short post about the tension between those ideas.

You see, the simple fact is that we can't all be experts on everything. There's a real case to be made for delegating responsibility to elites in particular fields. When I need surgery I'd prefer to be operated on by a professionally trained surgeon. I want an expert aviator to pilot the plane I'm flying in. So what about leading a nation? Well, as things stand, I want experts leading the nation as well; that's why all democracies are representative democracies, where we vote for the representatives who do the work. We all know, however, that this experiment has gone terribly wrong.

And we all know why that is the case. It's because the wrong elites are voted in. By all rights, governments should be full of scientists, real experts who know what they're talking about and are used to dealing with facts. Instead we've gone by the meritocratic notion attached to capitalism; we've let ourselves be convinced by the wealthy that wealth is the primary indicator for intrinsic qualities, such as intellect, special skills or experience. There's been a troubling trend in western democracies where politicians are elected for their proven entrepreneurial success; if only the nation is run like a business by successful businessmen, everything will work out just fine...

That's such a dumb idea, because the meritocracy is a dumb idea under capitalism. Wealth is not an indicator of intrinsic quality at all; maybe Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg are the very best illustrations we've ever had of that truth. In a representative democracy, our elected representatives should really be experts on the subjects their respective departments deal with, not just rich and powerful; most departments should, like I already mentioned, be populated with scientists, not lawyers and economists or successful entrepreneurs. A nation is not a business. Most departments should be headed by people with degrees in the humanities, history, sociology and so on. This will never happen so long as we prioritize profits and growth, and coincidentally those are the exact priorities of the elites we've come to elect under the capitalist notion of meritocracy.

The simple truth is this: politics is not surgery; I'd still like to be able to choose one expert over another, and no matter which expert I choose, I'd fully expect them to be able to explain to me what's wrong with me, why I need surgery in the first place, and why I should trust them to do it for me over any other surgeon. What I want to say here is that, through representation or via direct vote, democracy can only ever work if we're informed honestly about what we're deciding on. And that's the heart of the problem here; the capitalist elites are able to manufacture consent like it's any other manufactured product. We're used to our governments lying to us because they have to keep up the appearance that they rule on our behalf, when we all know they rule on behalf of their fellow elites.

Democracy is a bold experiment that unfortunately has never been given a fair chance to really get of the ground. But in this day and age, now that we have the technology to really make it work, it's disheartening to hear a brilliant mind like Richard Dawkins argue for elitism, without highlighting what's wrong with it under our current socioeconomic paradigm. And that's despite his reference to the American method of voting where a vote from someone in one state is worth less than a vote from someone in another state. I agree that not all opinions are equal; some are just plain wrong and don't deserve the same amount of attention as opinions that are based in factual reality. Marjory Taylor Greene's idea about Jewish space lasers, isn't as valuable as the opinions of firefighters and environmentalists when it comes to forming an opinion on the California wildfires, and making policies to prevent them

But that's no reason to just hand over all power to elites or experts. Honest information and the right kind of experts are the main problems with our current democratic representation, so I find Dawkin's opinion here too one-sided. Watch the video to form your own opinion.

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