Democracy and the Rise of Fundamentalism

These days, when the word “democracy” is spoken in hushed religious tones, it is well to remember the founding fathers of the United States designed a republic with inherent checks against the politically unsophisticated masses. When reading “The Communist Manifesto” it is well to ask if there is any reason to expect a government of and by the proletariat to be better than the bourgeoisie at resisting the corrosive temptations of power. And when Lenin stated that religion was the opiate of the masses he meant not that it brought euphoria, but that religion soothed the pain of unpleasant social realities with an anodyne of imaginings.

An unpleasant side effect of the right and proper social leveling that we are experiencing today is a degree of grass roots hostility toward intellectuals and objectivity. No one would expect the mathematical ability of the median individual to match that of a professor of mathematics. But in the field of public discourse one opinion must formally be accorded the same weight as the next with no recourse to any scale of reality. Belief is accorded the same weight as knowledge, and if I think two and two make five a serious discussion of the matter is in order.

This is a deplorable situation and perhaps irremediable. Confusion and presumption and the ensuing chaos will have to play themselves out. And if humanity survives its planetary adolescence we can expect some semblance of maturity to emerge of its own accord.

Keep your seat belt buckled.