Abolish democracy

A frequent criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement has been that the protesters’ demands are not clear or unified.  This is simply not true. The protesters have a long list of demands, all of which are rooted in opposition to corporate control of government.

They want the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to be reversed, ending unlimited corporate donations to political campaigns. They want an end to corporate personhood . They want the reinstatement of regulations on the financial sector, including the Glass-Steagall regulations on banks. They want members of the financial and banking sectors to be investigated and prosecuted for misconduct leading to the economic collapse.

Clearly, the protesters believe American society has become corrupt and undemocratic. They are demanding a return to the democracy of yore. This devotion to democratic ideals is clear in the subculture of the protesters.

Microphones are forbidden by the government, so crowds create human microphones by echoing speeches. Decisions are reached by consensus during mass assemblies and a system of hand signals has evolved to silently indicate agreement or dissent.

Most telling is the protesters’ refusal to appoint leaders or groups of representatives.  
The protesters think they are showing us a way forward, a path back to democracy. But we do not need more democracy. Democracy is weakness. The inevitable result of democracy is that those with the most wealth and power will infiltrate the government and use the state to force the masses into submission.

We need only look at modern America to see this is true. Even if the leaderless masses now occupying our cities succeed in reforming the government, they will have only caused a minor setback to the upper class.

Compare the United States to China. The Chinese government does not waste time with idealist dreams of democracy. It observes the material facts of the world and then acts, leaving no time for worthless debate.

The results are clear.

While the U.S. has slowly declined in wealth and prominence and our people have lost jobs and homes, the Chinese nation has constantly ascended. In the past 30 years, the Chinese have enjoyed the world’s most rapid economic growth.  In a single generation, more than 400 million Chinese citizens have been lifted out of poverty.  The single-party Chinese state has shown us the flaws in our own government.

We have a simple choice to make. We could succumb to naive idealism and endorse the Occupy Wall Street movement, then feign shock in 20 years when the reforms have been undone and yet another economic crisis has devastated the lower classes.

Or we could make the much harder decision to reject democracy.

We could rise up and create a single-party state, dedicated not to the interests of the wealthy few but to the prosperity of the many, just as the Bolsheviks and Maoists did before us. Comrades, the time to act is now.

­— atcrane@indiana.edu