Hello everyone
>
> This months elected topic is from Marco:
>
> "Is democracy the best (most moral) option for the q-social level?"
>
> Of course I'm not longing for totalitarianism, but I think our modern democracies are far from
> being perfect. Is the will of the majority enough to declare what's right and what's wrong?
> For example, has the majority of a democratic nation like the USA the right to require the
> capital punishment? And is it moral that the main gauge for a statesman to take a decision
> is the voice of the majority?
Hi Marco and all
I've pondered this month's topic quite a lot over the past several weeks
but no response arose which seemed a suitable answer so I just filed
them all in the Drafts folder that now holds over a thousand unsent
messages. Personally I feel democracy here in the US and that form of
government called democracy in other parts of the world are not at all
the same but I am a poor judge, having never lived or even traveled
abroad. But I had breakfast with a friend about a week and a half ago
and had an opportunity to pose some questions to him that are pertinent
to this month's topic.
The friend I breakfasted with is now holding down a very high ranking
post in Washington D.C. after serving many years as a congressman at
both state and federal levels. You'll see him standing behind the
President when he makes his State of the Union address. It's a little
weird to have breakfast with him now since there is a contingent of
black suited men always surrounding him where ever he goes but he still
comes to the same greasy spoon restaurant in our mutual home town of
Yorkville whenever he is home.
He was my high school history teacher... oh let me see now... about,
Christ, has it really been almost thirty years now? yeah. It has. Later
our sons went to school together and I saw him a lot at school
functions. Still later I coached his boys in Little League. So we go
back. Now, normally I detest eating alone. But something made me stop on
this particular morning... maybe weakness from hunger since I hadn't
eaten much for the last couple days (I sometimes just forget to eat when
I am really pondering)... and the place was nearly deserted, being early
Sunday morning and all. So I stopped in for a quick bite.
In the corner booth, when I walked inside, sat a group of six or seven
men and in the center of them I immediately recognized my old friend.
Our eyes met and he waved me over. While I walked closer, he leaned
across and whispered something in the ear of the black suited man
sitting next to him. The man looked me up and down, nodded, and got up
without a word along with three of the other men to give me room to sit
down. That contingent moved to the booth right behind us while three
others remained at the table in complete silence. I will try and
remember our conversation with my friend as best I can and recount it
for you though of course I didn't write it down at the time and it may
not have went exactly like this. My friend is a big bear of a man with
thick snowy white hair and a quick smile. He stood and we shook hands.
"Dan! Gosh its good to see you again! Come on and sit down. You want
some breakfast? Government's buying."
"Oh yeah! Sounds good. It's so good to see you too Denny! But jeeze, I
see you all the time now on tv. So it doesn't seem as long, but its been
at least 15 years since we last spoke, hasn't it?"
"Where does the time go? How's the boys?"
"Great. I got grand kids now. Five of them and another on the way. And
how're your boys? I just saw Josh a couple weeks ago. He stopped by to
see my Josh."
"Well, you know kids. I don't get to see them much now since I spend so
much time away. Josh got himself into a little scrape with the law. I'm
sure you heard about that."
"Yeah. He spoke of it. Tell me Denny. Is it worth all the time you spend
away from your family to do what you do?"
The waitress appeared and took our order... eggs over easy for me, with
sausage and biscuits. He ordered steak and eggs. The three men sitting
there silent simply said "the special".
"Well, I think about that a lot, Dan. You know the boys were grown when
I took this job but I really didn't realize how intense Washington can
be. How devouring. Every day I get up and have to motivate myself to go
and fight to tame this wild crazy beast that we call a government. Well,
taming it isn't really what I do. I try and pacify the head of the beast
into not biting off it's own tail to spite itself. And if I can do that,
I consider my job well done. Do you get what I'm saying? I know it's
hard for someone who's never been there to understand."
"But isn't the government just people, like you and me?"
"That's what I thought, way back when I used to teach school." A smile
crept over his face. "Remember how I always kept catching you smoking in
the boys room?"
"And you'd never turn us in. Not once."
"That was my vision of government then. Now I would turn you in
immediately and think nothing more about it. So what does that say?"
"You're not serious."
"Oh but I am! You see, back then I was idealistically naive."
"You mean all the stuff you taught in high school..."
"Was crap. I simply did not know how government really worked until I
became part of it, you see. But when I became part of government I
realized idealism does not work because everyone has their own personal
ideal they are striving towards. The name of the game in government, in
successful government, is to compromise your ideals in such a fashion
that they are within reach and yet to embrace the ideals of your peers
at the same time, which is to say you want to be everything to everyone.
We all start out in civil service like that. But soon we begin to see
the reason for the rules that are in place... and rules cannot be broken
without the entire system crumbling. So you see I was wrong not to turn
you boys in for breaking the smoking ban. Of course we're talking nearly
thirty years ago and we both know things were different then. Maybe my
point of view has evolved, what do you think?" He smiled and shoveled a
large forkful of eggs into his mouth while looking at me.
"So you're saying government is all about following rules..."
"Oh no," Denny snorted, with a small cloud of eggs spraying spraying
from his chin. "The rules ARE government. That is what I never realized
until I became part of it."
"Because people come and go but the rules stay."
"Well, yeah, there's that. But that isn't really what I'm driving at."
He dipped his toast in his egg yolk and took a bite. "Rules are rules
only as long as we respect them and government is what it is only as
long as we respect it."
"But is our government the best it can be right now?"
Denny forked a piece of steak into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully.
"No, of course it isn't, and hopefully our government will never be the
best it can be. You know why?"
"I would think we'd want the best it can be."
"If our government was the best it could be, where would we go then?"
"I don't get you. Let's just take one area as a for instance... say
human rights. Shouldn't we as the people expect our government to do the
best it can to protect all human rights? And if the government fails in
that, don't the people have the right to rise up and overthrow that
government? Isn't that what our constitution guarantees us all as
American citizens?"
"Well, my gut tells me that yes, we as a nation could do better when it
comes to human rights, even here in our own country. And perhaps the
people do have a right to expect the government to do more in that
particular area. But if someone really feels strongly about that, they
can run for office and really try to make a difference. That is what's
so great about this country compared to any other I've visited, and I've
been to quite a few countries over the last few years."
"You're right. If someone feels strongly enough about issues there is
always the option of running for office. But take someone like me. Hell,
Denny, you know me and you've known me for years. I'll never run for
office and no one would vote for me if I did, at least if they were in
their right mind."
"You give yourself too little credit, Dan. You know, I have breakfast
with the President of the United States on a weekly basis and here we
are sitting having breakfast too."
"I just think what you're saying is a cop out. Tell me, why did you run
for office, the first time?"
"I wanted to do just what you said. Make a difference."
"And have you?"
"I used to think so but lately I wonder if any one person can really
change the tide of where our culture is headed."
"Moralistically speaking, you mean?"
"Well yes, there's that to consider."
"But doesn't it all start with a good moral basis?"
"Government, you mean?"
"Well, the drive to be part of government. Do you see your peers as
people who genuinely wish to serve others, or do you see them as
self-serving?"
"You could make a case for either scenario, Dan. There's good and bad in
Congress just like everywhere. When I was a teacher and you were in
school, there were good and bad teachers, right?"
"And you knew that too?"
"I worked with them. Of course I knew it. But there was nothing to be
done. It's much the same in Congress."
"But now you have more power so you can do more, right?"
"In order to wield power a man has to court favors from powerful allies.
Any man, it doesn't matter who. Every great leader has been a great
leader because of the powerful allies they had backing them. I'm no
different. And when you have powerful allies they have to be placated in
some fashion or they can turn on you in an instant."
"So the ideals you came into the job with were not your own!"
"Now you got it."
"And they were not the will of the majority, either."
Denny finished off his eggs and wiped his plate with the remaining piece
of toast, took a bite and looked at me with his most serious expression.
"The will of the majority is a farce. Democracy has nothing to do with
that. Hell Dan, look at the last presidential election. Only forty nine
percent of registered voters voted. So if democracy is the will of the
majority, there would have been no election at all. No. That is the
biggest misconception I think Europeans and other foreigners have of
American democracy. It is not now, nor has it ever been, concerned with
the will of the majority. Look at our capital punishment here in
America. Why do we still have capital punishment on our books when all
the other highly developed countries do not?"
"I always thought it was the will of the majority."
"Got nothing to do with democracy at all. Listen. When we discuss
legislation in Congress, I have yet to hear a congressman say it is in
the interest of the majority. No. It is the minorities that get
preferential treatment, if anything."
"So why capital punishment?"
"If you want my honest opinion, Dan, it's a throwback to the wild west.
Really. Crimes, heinous crimes, were dealt with swiftly and harshly back
then and I think America will always have a little of that Cowboy and
Indian stuff in her."
"So there will always be capital punishment?"
"Oh I didn't say that, though I believe it."
"The revenge factor."
"Huh?"
"Isn't that what the wild west mentality is all about? Revenge?"
"Sure."
"An eye for an eye and all that old testament stuff. Is there no chance
for an evolution of values taking our country away from this
overwhelming need to revenge wrongs? Or is that just part of human
nature?"
Denny wiped his mouth and sipped his coffee before answering.
"I honestly can't answer that. Right now, with the mood of the country,
I would answer no, there is no chance. And why would we want to change?
Wouldn't that give every criminal license to kill and rob who ever they
wanted?"
"Isn't such behavior deviant? As a rule?"
"Not necessarily. Consider crimes of passion, for example."
"Yet we tend to exact less revenge in a crime of passion."
"So you're going the crime is a disease route."
"Oh not at all. Deviant behavior is not a disease, per se. It may be an
evolutionary route to that which will someday be better but right now we
as a culture fail to take that point of view."
"I don't get you, Dan."
"Well, take for instance the American Revolution. The Monarchy in
England no doubt looked upon the insurrection in the American Colonies
as being lead by deviants to be quelled, put in prison or shot outright,
correct?"
"Perhaps."
"A war was fought."
"Yes, ok. I see what you're saying. But I still don't see the
relevance."
"We with our limited capacity to forecast the future should be very
hesitant to label any member of society as beyond rehabilitation.
Hesitant to the point of repealing capital punishment."
"You know, Dan, I need someone like you I could shoot some ideas off
from time to time. Do you mind if I email you?"
"Yeah, do that Denny. Let's keep in touch."
"I really have to go, but it's been great talking with you again."
"It really has. And thank the government for breakfast when you get back
to DC."
"You know I will. Take care Dan.
"Denny, its been real."
------- End of forwarded message -------
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