no third solution

Get ready for the newspeak:

The EU is not a European superstate, [Italian President Giorgio] Napolitano said, it is a “a new form of democracy.”

Sounds like pan-European hegemony, if you ask me. Democracy’s many, many demerits notwithstanding, it is by definition a government of the people. Whatever you take that to mean, removing the people from the political process is fundamentally a negation of democracy, no matter how much you dress it up. When the constituents of a “democracy” are subject to a higher, overriding power, democracy no longer exists. It’s either democracy (which is not a value judgement), or it’s not.

The EU is an aspiring Super-state which can only be realized if the old States relinquish power. This is unlikely to come from within, and therefore its genesis must be foreign. A slave does not choose willingly a harsher, stronger master. Now, the E.U. calls itself a democracy, while attempting to usurp the historical sovereigns, and in no way accountable to their respective serfs. The Britons (or the French, or the Dutch, etc.) will never have the popular appeal to unilaterally effect change within their borders – as long as they are subject to the E.U.’s brand of democracy. And if they will not give up the power, it must be taken from them.

Of note, is the classic rationalization for representative government: the people are too stupid to make appropriate decisions on matters concerning politics, therefore it is necessary that an autocrat/dictator/philosopher king/etc. make these decisions for the people. Typically slipped in the back door is the fact that the autocrat/dictator/philosopher king establishes his own rules about how future autocrats and dictators can be chosen, and also about who may become the future leaders – this, as always, is to protect the people from themselves.

But if people are too stupid to judge what needs to be done, they can’t really be counted on to elect the right people to make these decisions in the first place. Which raises the question: “How in the hell do we figure out who’s in charge, if we’re all so goddamned stupid?”

And furthermore, if we’re all so stupid, we cannot be expected to judge post hoc the consequences of the policies put into place by the leaders we’re unfit to elect to solve the problems we’re unfit to evaluate. The argument for authority can be reduced to the internally inconsistent “I judge that I should not judge,” and therefore must be false. Like the hydra of mythology, no matter how many times this lie is beaten down, it comes back with yet another head.

Such is the price of vigilance.

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H/T: Brussels Journal

Possibly related posts:

1. Democracy and the Right of Exit
2. Democracy is Not Liberty

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This entry was posted by David Z on Monday, June 18th, 2007 at 1:41 pm and is filed under Democracy is Great!, World Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.