Journeyman Philosopher

Returning from my short absence I introduce an idea I’ve been thinking about quite frequently recently.

Democracy as an oligarchy.

For all my readers that are not familiar with the term oligarchy allow me to explain. Oligarchy is a form of government in which the power rests in the hands of a small elite segment of society. In such a system all the decisions in the country would be made by a group of individuals, perhaps intellects, whom ‘know’ what is best for the nation.

Why would our democratic system in actuality be a functioning oligarchic nation? After all we do vote for who we put in power and in such a manner we implement our choice, seemingly aside from the elites and/or intellectuals of society. My argument is not aimed at the corruption of the government, but rather a lack of responsibility of the people in the country.

Free thinkers are key to my argument. Fundamentally, I believe, free thinkers are necessary for a democratic system to function. This is based on the belief that in order for a democratic system to represent you, you have to be present to be represented, this presence found in stating your own beliefs determined through free thinking.

In actuality perhaps one in ten people would be considered a free thinker. This is as most people gain information from the media and then act in accordance with the medias proposed image.

This isn’t that ridiculous is it? Ask people what they think, and then ask them why they think it? More often then not the second question will be responded to frankly (such as ‘I saw it in the news’ ‘read it in the paper’ etc).

In such a manner it seems as though the average person sits in the opinion set of another ‘The news said this…’ ‘My friend said this….’ Fundamentally if we track down most of these ideas I’d speculate that most of their origins originate from a select set of views propagated by a select group of people.

The free thinkers create the ideas, yet the average person just adopts them, in order for a democracy to function theoretically wouldn’t it be key that all individuals are free thinkers? If not they simply act in two with the ideals of others.

I will clarify this idea shortly. Until then what do you think?