My Opinion-Editorial on International Day of Democracy, published today, Bangladesh Post 14/09/2018 A Daily with a Difference | Latest Online English Daily among Bangladesh Newspapers Home Opinion Democracy under strain around the world International Day of Democracy Democracy under strain around the world September 14, 2018 AVIK GANGOPADHYAY The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that “the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government,” has inspired constitution-making around the world and contributed to global acceptance of democratic values and principles. Democracy, in turn, is supposed to provide the natural environment for the protection and effective realization of human rights. International Day of Democracy, September 15, gives an opportunity not only to look for the differences between the democracies of the West and the East but for ways to invigorate democracy and seek answers to the systemic challenges it faces, including tackling economic and political inequalities, making democracies more inclusive by bringing the young and marginalized into the political system, and making it more innovative and responsive to emerging challenges such as migration and climate change. It is also an opportunity to highlight the values of freedom and respect for human rights as essential elements of democracy. Democracy is acclaimed to protect the interest of citizens, prevent monopoly of authority, promote equality, make for a responsible and stable administration, bring a feeling of obligation towards the citizens and impart political education to the people. It helps to make good citizens and promotes change. Where as a totalitarian society is usually ruled by a dictator, and there is very little or no freedom. In totalitarianism, the government controls almost every aspect of life. In other forms of rule or administration individual rights are restricted, there is no authorized and unauthorized opposition and people are kept in ignorance. Violence tends to be the only option for dissent, earning is limited and no savings are allowed. In such a rule meaningful employment goes down. The government owns all the businesses, properties and the means of production. Above all, there is no freedom of speech. Consumers’ needs are not taken into consideration. Productivity and efficiency are difficult to achieve without profit motive for the workers. It hampers personal growth. It does not give financial freedom. As democracy has effectively created the ideal environment that is conducive to personality improvement, character cultivation and good habits, this political system seems to function as the first school for good citizenship, where individuals can learn about their rights and duties from birth to the time of death. Without making any adroit penetration one can see the pull that democracy, especially the western model of democracy, is countering, and which the east is imitating in a compelling mode. It is time to reject the Eurocentric view of the linear model of history that is popular in the liberal education system and instead spearhead with the idea that throughout history man and his civilizations go through periods of birth, growth, decline and death. A non-linear study of history fractures and often dilutes the high unfettered opinions of western model of democracy which is apparently impressive but impossible to absorb in many countries of the globe. Democracy has become a weapon of moneyed interests. It uses the media to create the illusion that there is consent from the governed. The press today is an army with carefully organized weapons, the journalists its officers, the readers its soldiers. The reader neither knows nor is supposed to know the purposes for which he is used and the role he or she is to play. The notion of democracy is often no different than living under a plutocracy or a government by wealthy elites. Using the media’s propaganda, money is turned into force and controls people’s lives. The leftist causes that have dominated the last century, such as equality, feminism, and Socialism, were seen as tools used to assist the moneyed powers to be more effective. Monetary powers permeate the government, eventually destroying the spirit of democracy and as democracy breaks down, this decline gets marked by increasingly authoritarian leaders. Whenever one declares oneself in support of an “-ism”, one is simply agreeing to be one of the voices within the Western dialectic that drives it forward. But, what if one doesn’t like this Faustian narrative at all? To the Megalopolitans it is a necessity of the Faustian soul that this should be so– he who thinks or teaches ‘otherwise’ is sinful, a backslider, a foe, and he is fought down without mercy. In such a realm of ‘democratic progress’ all other forms of social division will take a backseat to the huge, ever-deepening gulf between ‘mega-city cosmopolitanism’ and ‘provincialism’. It doesn’t matter whether one is ethnically Russian, German, Brazilian, or Nigerian, religious or non-religious, male, female, or other, or indeed sexually reproductive or sterile. The only distinction that will be made will be between the inhabitants of a few gigantic global metropolises, and the inhabitants of land, town, and city outside these places, who are regarded as backwards, rustics and provincials. Cosmopolitanism has assumed and inverted all of the social superiority previously assigned to the noble class. “Rights” will become the privileges of these new elites. Even those urbanites who grow tired of the pretentiousness of the mega-city will prove unable to go back to their roots, given the ostracism this would involve. The common man wants nothing of life but health, longevity, amusement, comfort — happiness. He who does not despise this should turn his eyes from world history, for it contains nothing of the sort. The best that history has created is great suffering. People will cease to participate in elections, and the best candidates have started removing themselves from politics. If we are currently on this timeline, will there be the rise of a Caesar as democracy, dominated by money, crumbles under its own corruption? Modern democracy makes it very hard for governments to make long term planning, because politicians don’t want to lose their votes, so their planning is not economically driven, but driven by voters, who, in general, in most of the nations, are short-sighted. Democracy divides countries, the very seed of disintegration germinated most in this period of decline, even when one gives the right to people who don’t respect other people’s opinions, chaos kicks in, so division among people is inevitable. The question of whether world peace will ever be attainable under such tested patterns of democracy can only be answered by those familiar with world history. To be familiar with world history means, however, to know human beings as they have been and always will be. There is a vast difference, which most people will never comprehend, between viewing future history as it will be and viewing it as one might like it to be. Peace is a desire, war or disintegration is a fact. Has history ever paid heed to human desires and ideals? Let us remind ourselves about our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us, to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves and to act in such a way that some part of us lives on. Otherwise, the will-to-power operating under a pure democratic disguise will finish off its masterpiece so well that our sense of freedom will be actually flattered by the most thorough-going enslavement that has ever existed. We must admit that democracy, too, has blunt edges. The writer AVIK GANGOPADHYAY is a critic and columnist based in Kolkata, India View in Publication Site