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Why do democracies fail to provide lasting peace?

There is no single answer to this question, as the reasons for the failure of democracies to provide lasting peace can be complex and multifaceted. However, some possible reasons include:

  1. Deep-seated political and social divisions: Democracies can be particularly susceptible to political polarization, which can create deep divisions that are difficult to bridge. This can lead to instability, unrest, and even violence.
  2. Economic inequality: Democracies often rely on a capitalist economic system, which can lead to vast economic inequality. This can create resentment and social unrest, particularly among those who feel that they have been left behind by the system.
  3. The influence of special interests: Democracies can be vulnerable to the influence of special interest groups, particularly those with significant financial resources. This can lead to policies that benefit these groups at the expense of the broader public interest.
  4. External threats: Democracies can be vulnerable to external threats, including terrorism, cyber-attacks, and military aggression. These threats can undermine social stability and create a sense of insecurity.
  5. Lack of trust in government: Democracies rely on the trust of their citizens, but this trust can be eroded by corruption, political scandals, and other factors. This can create a sense of disillusionment and disengagement that undermines social cohesion.

Overall, while democracies can provide a framework for peace and stability, they are not immune to the challenges and threats that can undermine these goals. Addressing these challenges will require a range of strategies, including efforts to promote social equality, strengthen democratic institutions, and build trust between citizens and their government.

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Happiness 

My happiness is paramount. Anything else is hypocrisy and as any deceit it is detrimental to your dearest to you to the broader circle of your acquaintances and relatives but above all it destroys you. Truth hurts but we are alive because of that pain that keeps us from self-destruction. Dishonesty is ultimately bad because it muddles the clarity of communication of my desires to the world and the world’s response to them the information that I need to pursue them. Lying to others leads to deceiving yourself, forgetting what you really want to accomplish, doubting yourself, hating yourself and ultimately – destroying yourself. 

We are the sons and daughters of God! (Or nature for the atheists). It doesn’t matter if you believe in intelligent design, divine purpose or accidental combination of favorable circumstances. Me, we, you, our chemistry, genes, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, desires exist interwoven into the universal scheme of things and here is only one and only most important part of that system – me! 

Why me? 

Because that’s from where I look and can see and appreciate the world. I am my watchtower, my belltower, my lighthouse with my guiding light. 

Who Owns the Government? 

Political systems are created, funded and supported by us – the people to cater to our needs and desires, to make our lives easier, healthier, more rewarding and ultimately better.  

The problem is that by choosing the best of us to deal with this most important task we end up with a bunch of people who understandably look for the best way to make themselves happier which sometimes comes at our expense. Humanity has devised multiple ways to ward against that and they were almost always successful in the beginning until elite rot sets in and the system becomes ungovernable working against its original purpose. 

Science, planning and forecasting 

Science is not supposed to tell you what to do. Scientists attempt to describe reality as it is. To figure out what to do you must: 

  1. Know what you want 
  1. Devise a way to get there 
  1. Assess the resources you have to get there and revise #2 
  1. Asses the environment and the favorable and unfavorable circumstances and revise #2 
  1. Put together the best forecast you have and revise #2 
  1. Start implementing your plan and revise you forecast to accommodate your new knowledge and revise #2 

There is no reality as such, a given. 

  1. It’s constantly changing  
  1. I am one of the main actors who actively and purposedly contribute to recreating that reality 
  1. We act on the basis of our desires and perceptions of the state of affairs 
  1. The effectiveness and efficiency of our actions depend on how close our perception of reality is relevant to the actual reality 
  1. Our perception, our understanding of reality is biased by our desires, beliefs and experience. 
  1. Our biases, experience and desires are constantly changing.  
  1. Same with reality. 

If reality doesn’t align with my happiness there is a way to fix that. See above or better devise your own. It would also be nice if you share it with me. Because I don’t know about you, but I am neither the smartest person ever nor perfect in any manner.  

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Dictatorship of the proletariat? 

A naïve concept developed by Marx and Engels and implemented by Lenin. 

It started with a big promise people were electing Soviets (councils) to rule over municipalities, businesses and ultimately the nation. Sadly, the lack of checks and balances led to authoritarianism and terror. The Soviet Union after remarkable successes in industrialization, education and space travel stagnated into oblivion the creativity of its people stifled by the deficiencies of a bureaucratic planned economy which was oblivious to the realities of people’s needs and dreams. 

The system was successfully implemented in China where the ruling elites studiously examine its failures and aided by American readiness to open their markets to prevent rapprochement between Russia and China managed to create the most powerful economy in the world while lifting hundreds of millions of poverty.  

Technically Lenin’s notion that a group of elitist managers – the Bolshevik Party should lead the masses for their own good is not new. Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Politics expect a class of learned leaders to boss over the productive classes. Also, they expect those people to be eunuchs. Lenin did skip that last part but it was implemented by the Turkish Sultans who established the Janissaries by abducting the first sons of non-Muslim families to train them in military and state affairs so they can rule the country in the name of the monarch. That notion of aristocratic monarchy supported by learned eunuchs was also implemented by the most enlightened empire – ancient China. Rome also used talented slaves as administrators and advisors.  

Those empires failed – including the Ottoman empire embroiled in a bitter fight between the Janissaries and the regular Western European style army created by the Sultan to protect him from the rising power of his former ‘guardians’. 

On top of these political theories and formations rooted in premedieval thought came the new political theory of democracy and free-market economies from the most unlikely place – the fringe of Europe – England. That blossomed in the new British colonies in America to the unsurpassed: “We the people…” and developed into the leading economy in the world, mesmerizing humanity with art, technology and excellence. Sadly, that system proud with its reliance on human creativity and endeavor is now deeply undermined by growing inequality and corruption at all levels of society. Why? 

While I still believe that democracy and free market principles have no viable alternative, the fact that societies built on those principles are so vulnerable to rot from within is frightening. Take America – even after Eisenhower’s warning about the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex the proud people of the United States fell into the trap of militarism, corruption and demagogy losing life, freedoms and most important the potential pursuit of happiness. 

Looking towards the future – is it going to be molded by an elitist Politburo, a hypocritical Congress or Soviet – I hope not, but what will that future be?  
I don’t know. 

I don’t know. 

But I (and perhaps any of you too) know what I want! 

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Follow your dreams or follow the instructions 

Actually, don’t follow the instructions* because that will most certainly screw your life. 

The only chance that you have to set things right and succeed (and I mean chance, not a guarantee) is if you follow your dreams. Still, if you have faith, a door will open. It may not be exactly the door you were expecting to open, but it may lead you to happiness that you weren’t expecting. 

Creativity and imagination are the most precious resources of civilization. They are the building material forming the basis for understanding and invention. Luckily it seems their seeds are spread widely and abundantly. At the same time, they seem to easily wither and die without proper nurture and care. 

A dead dream is everyone’s loss and people can’t follow their dreams if they are hungry, scared or oppressed. Need, fear, and ignorance kill freedom and with freedom the chance for understanding and prosperity. 

Freedom doesn’t come free of charge. Precious as it is, it must be cherished, earned, and defended. It’s not a goal but a process and indispensable first step towards the good life and happiness. Freedom is not divisible. You cannot be partly free. Freedom can only reign supreme or else it dies. 

You cannot be truly free if your neighbor is not. That’s even more so if you have special talents and, in my opinion, everyone has talents. Only some don’t bother to develop them. That’s not simple laziness that is a crime. By ignoring your talents, you rob yourself and those close to you of the happiness and the good life that you deserve. 

*Instructions are like crutches designed to prevent you from falling when you are weak and insecure but will get in the way if you are running towards your goal.

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Stupidity

There is an old Bulgarian saying: “Stupidity occurs to humans”. Indeed, it does. All too often. More often than we all would like to see. But what can we do? There is no stupid animal. Animals are just natural, so are trees. For people stupidity is natural too. In order to achieve something more than naturally occurring stupidity we need to make an effort and think. By making an effort I don’t mean – over exert oneself. No, on the contrary, natural life is hard work and full of frustration and disappointments only the clever ones can lead a truly good lazy life in luxury or whatever you consider good life: might be devoting your life to yourself, your family, the advancement of humanity or science and invention. But alas good life doesn’t come naturally. You must plan it, build it, and then enjoy it. And all that involves thinking. And thinking is a dangerous process always prone to stumble into the trap of stupidity especially if it is done in a stuck up self-conceited: ‘holier than you way’. 

  We all know stupidity after the fact. Well, most ot the time. That’s not a big feat. It’s easy to notice when it hurts. It’s harder to grasp it before the fact: Danger! Stupidity! Will get us into trouble! Will most possibly hurt! Probably a lot! Evade, prevent, desist, in one word: THINK!. Thinking may be painful and confusing and is not a sure antidote to stupidity. Actually stupidity is a one of the possible outcomes of thinking) still it is the only known remedy against the pains and frustration of stupidity. 

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A speculation on how the world may look from the point of view of the  US corrupt crony elite

That’s how the world seems to look from the watchtower of the American globalist elite. The major competitors are:

  1. The EU
  2. China

The US corrupt crony elites want to control those two to avoid sliding into irrelevance. They plan to do that by:

  1. Controlling the EU and China corrupt crony elites and
  2. Controlling their trade roots
  3. Controlling their energy sources (that’s why the Ukrainian war was urgent due to the danger of the EU becoming energy independent through renewables and EU nuclear being undermined)

Currently:

The US has complete control over the EU corrupt crony elites and EU transatlantic trade routes but not the trans Asian ones (aah the Silk Road)

The US has fairly good control over China’s trade routes through the Pacific and the Malacca Straights

China and the EU may wiggle away from US controlled trade routes but developing the Silk Road and the US has very limited leverage to prevent that – hence the war in Ukraine and the meddling in Central Asia.

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If faith and ethics mean anything in life they must bring real profit

But what is ethical and what isn’t. Eve’s pursuit of divine wisdom doesn’t seem to have yielded any tangible results. I know there are uncountable sets of rules and regulations – legal, religious, cultural and whatnot. And most of them are very useful and going against them can get you into real trouble even if your indiscretion is not discovered by the relevant authorities. I am not talking about divine intervention because it seems that God more often than not looks the other way when the good are crushed and evil prevails. To sum it up life’s different from an old Western with a happy ending. Perhaps there is some higher purpose or perhaps the atheists are right and the only real law is the law of the jungle of a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye.

Do moral principles work at all? Could there be a workable set of rules worthy of keeping by providing adequate return for the good guys apart from the questionable place in that luxury retirement home – Heaven – resplendent with scores of virgins singing boring hymns? What if there is no afterlife and we just die and rot which seems rather obvious except for that atheist Richard Dawkins who reckons we live forever in physical form through our own immortal selfish genes. And we are destined to live in this real, material and fluid world which could be Heaven or Hell depending on perspective, luck, attitude and the results of your actions.

Can you judge others and complain about their actions – yes you can but that is mostly a waste of time because you have to look at yourself first). If you don’t like the world you’ll have to start  and from the man in the mirror and be the change you want to see in the world. To look deep inside and find that divine God given soul or genetic predisposition for survival – depending on how you prefer to call it. Because that idea/form/gene/meme/soul that will survive is the only thing that matters. There is the way of life and the dead end of death. There is a way to learn to be immortal – we are all offspring of a race of survivors – all the way back to Adam and Eve. So we have inherited a treasure of useful knowledge and a lot of nonsense (there were people who believed you have to kill someone to make the sun rise or kill an innocent child to win a battle). I don’t covet the neighbor’s donkey or his ass and we all believe his partner in life is free to choose. Still if I treat my neighbor badly and disrespect his right to life, liberty and to choose the way he pursues happiness than most probably my neighbor will disrespect my rights and property. And then we’ll both be in real trouble.

And if you ask whether you are your brother’s keeper then your brother might be asking the same silly question too.

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Is God always Happy?

Why not? All powerful, immortal, all knowing it looks like God should be happy at all times. If you imagine God as a content Buddha – free of desires or like a Jesus ascending to Heaven satisfied with saving humanity by his sacrifice…That may be so but I doubt it. If you imagine God as a content Buddha – free of desires or like a Jesus ascending to Heaven satisfied with saving humanity by his sacrifice…That may be so, but I doubt it. Yes, I too can see the serene beauty of a stone or of vapour rising to the clouds but is that happiness? Rocks are peaceful lacking desires, but they do not have souls either. While God of the Bible seems to have doubts even about creation. Remember God creates something and then sees that it is good. Then God creates humanity – the pinnacle of creation in God’s own image but is so often disappointed… Happiness seems to elude God. God just like us humans is in a constant search of? Happiness? That seems believable, but it not my problem.

My problem is that I don’t seem to be happy all the time either. I know there are those of you who will say that happiness is actually the pursuit of happiness or else something that you cannot achieve on this world, but I will disagree. There are moments on this world when I feel definitely happy but then there are those moments when I don’t see any meaning at all. On the other hand – the pursuit of happiness can definitely be breathtakingly inspiring at times still there are moments when it suicidally frustrating. Then if it is my human nature to suffer from unsatisfied desires pulling my soul in different directions with no apparent meaning at all and if I am created in God’s image then God must be just like me and I dare not imagine what will be the impossible passion of happiness and hellish depth of  frustration that God is capable of feeling! DOTUK

And whose responsibility is all this? (I will suppress the intuitive reaction to blame the government.)

There were times when people believed that if prayers to God do not provide quick solutions perhaps a contract with the devil will do. But that seems like an illusion too. If I was the devil, I wouldn’t be very interested in providing services in exchange for a corrupt soul too anxious to prostitute itself. That’s damaged goods.

With no apparent help from above or below it seems that happiness is my responsibility alone. And if desires seem to contradict each other it’s up to me to mould them into a coherent and satisfactory vision. But even then – the path remains elusive.

It’s easy in the Wizard of Oz – just follow the Yellow Brick Road and the dreams that you dare to dream will come true. In real life the roads of faith, enterprise, politics or thinking seem to lead into different directions. Faith seems like the best (and deceivingly easiest) choice but believing without acting can easily degenerate into hypocrisy because how can I know who I am by the results of my actions if I do nothing.

The pursuit of happiness it’s what’s it all about.

To be able to indulge in that you have to be free.

To be free you have to be alive.

That’s the meaning of life.

Or 42.