Democracy Isn't Pretty

By: Ed Howes
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:25:26
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As I considered the truth of democratic ugliness, I further considered its implications in the Middle East. Afghanistan is a democracy. It is the will of the people to grow poppies, make opium and heroin. No one can stop them and it is foolish to try. They will need a larger market to support prices. People are likely busy expanding the global market as I write and soon the U.S. will be building new prisons and treatment centers for its new heroin dealers and addicts. Not pretty at all.

Palestine is a democracy. It is the will of the people to take back their land and prosper. Israel is a democracy. It is the will of the people to live and prosper on Palestinian land. One must destroy the other to express the will of the majority. It will not be pretty, no matter who prevails. Sudan is a democracy. It is the will of the Arab majority to drive Black Africans out of Sudan by any means. George Bush will say state sponsored genocide and state sponsored terrorism are two very different things and we will agree with him. The U.S. need not interfere on behalf of Black Africans and this is just the beginning of a great civil rights movement. The struggle of a minority under majority rule. Democracy isn't pretty. A few prominant African Americans protest years of neglect over the crisis in Darfur but I hear no great outcries from African Americans in general and American democracy is looking very inclusive. Nor have I heard outcries from American Muslims on behalf of their Black brethren in the faith. Perhaps our African and Muslim Americans have now become American Africans and Muslims and Darfur is not an American problem. Perhaps it is time to celebrate the American victory over racism. It's somebody else's problem now.

Iraq is a democracy. It was the will of the majority to allow minority rule under a ruthless strongman, as is fairly common and traditional in the Middle East. Now it is the will of the Iraqi majority to rule but the majority in Iraq is a minority in the Middle East. The regional majority may well oppose the regional minority ruling Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. Will the Iraqi majority prevail to create a democracy? Who really cares outside of the White House? Surely the White House does not want to see Iraqi - Iranian democratic solidarity making war on Saudi Arabia which cannot defend the largest oil reserves in the Middle East without U.S./ coalition assistance. Ugly, ugly democracy coming up.

Many of us know it is not difficult to manipulate the will of the majority and in fact control always goes to the best manipulators in democracy. The American majority has been against every war in its history, yet small minorities have always managed to change the will of the majority, without exception. It happens every time and ugly democracy does not ask why. It is simply the price we pay to have democracy. Now the world must pay the price as well.

In essence a democracy is simply a majority of people manipulated into doing the will of the rich and/ or powerful. It is a check on all protest and resistance. That the people upon whom the yoke of majority tyranny would resist with equal or greater violence should surprise no one. The majority just labels the resistance treason, rebellion or terrorism and does its best to punish and discourage it. War is, must be and always will be the result of democracy in a family, a village or a nation and so what? War is exciting and relieves boredom. War is a great money maker and keeps national economies humming. Those of us who have become attached to it want it for the whole world though we will say quite the opposite every chance we get. No, democracy and its wars are not pretty, but ugly can be great fun. One can't beat it for sheer excitement generation after generation and it is surely worth whatever it costs. Sometimes it works for you. Sometimes it works against you. Often it just doesn't work at all.

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