The future,
which excludes nothing, is History's best-kept secret. Anyone claiming to know
it declares themselves for what they are: an impostor.
This book contains
no prophecies or forecasts, but rather a realistic proposal for surviving the
failure of democracy as a political system. Above all, it aims to raise
awareness. Our contemporaries remain unaware that democracy, as a political
system, has failed in the West since the early 21st century, resulting in a new
regime of political organization – a post-democratic nature where the reality
of the State, human freedom, and the global economy function quite differently
from just two or three decades ago.
The aim of
this essay is modest: it seeks to present to interested readers a perspective
on what is perceived as the historical failure of democracy in the 21st
century.
Here, we will
speak critically of democracy beyond democracy itself, that is, independently
of contemporary ideologies that mythologize and politicize it from the
"left" or "right," or any other philosophical, often
unreal, options. These ideologies do not explain what democracy truly is but
rather adulterate it fictitiously under utopian, speculative, or idealistic
interests, which are actually foreign to democracy itself.
It remains
wearisome that philosophers, or those who consider themselves as such, and who
understand the reality of the world least — because they live in the idealism
of their philosophies, no matter how materialistic they may perceive them — are
the ones who, since the emergence of the Modern Age, talk most about politics
(they talk about everything, but say nothing: about anything). Before the 18th
century, religion was philosophy's favorite subject. Today, in competition with
politics and various ideologies, it is mostly self-help.
Naturally,
readers of this book will agree with some observations and disagree with
others, but this is frankly irrelevant, albeit "entertaining" and
"useful" for useless debates leading nowhere. Agreement, like
disagreement, remains an emotional state, somewhat witty, causing psychological
and sociological reactions rather than enduring necessities or demands capable
of fostering broader and more consistent thinking. Let us not forget that
"left" and "right" are emotional ways of collectively
organizing people's ignorance today.
One of the
main problems faced by any interpreter striving for rigor these days is the
denial of objectivity. The public has been educated, since the 18th century due
to the influence of German and Anglo-Saxon idealism, in the idea that
objectivity is impossible in critical interpretation. Even objectivity in the
sciences is denied, and, of course, the possibility of interpreting
scientifically facts intervened by opinion, which is the virus of ignorance, is
denied or even proscribed. Opinion's right eclipses scientific rationalism to
denial or even interdiction. Ideological or biological involvement is demanded
for the exercise of interpretation or profession, so only a man can practice
urology or a woman intervene in gynecology. In sum, it seems one must be an
insect to interpret insects since the objectivity of the entomologist is not
admitted simply because they don't know how to be an entomologist. And others
are not allowed to be so. Insects do not want entomologists. They prefer their
own predators.
I insist that
this essay aims to present the reader, dispassionately and objectively, that
is, rationally and without emotions, with the reality of democracy beyond
idealisms, philosophies, and utopias, and entirely apart from political myths
typical of any era, beliefs, or ideologies.
This is not an
opportunistic or mercantile book seeking easy success facilitated by a
situation of ideological, political, or economic crisis. Crises, for being
multiple, perpetual, and everlasting, have ceased to be original long ago.
Moreover, such opportunistic, commercial, and propagandistic publications are
already produced by others, supplied with deceptive advertising – redundancy
intended – editorial hype, and intoxicating commercial fame, all as intense as
it is fleeting. This is not our case, nor do we aim for anything similar.
This is a book
for minorities. It is intended for people who think about democracy beyond
ideologies. It is a book written for democracy's entomologists, if we may use
the metaphor.
The theses
presented in this essay were first expressed in the spring of 2020, under the
stark climax of the pandemic. Here and now, an updated and expanded review of
these same theses about democracy is offered.
It is emphasized that this is an essay, an open and critical writing, not a treaty. I'm not interested in reporting on what any author or politician thought or wrote in past times about democracy. And I'm not interested because I speak about the democracy that I have before me, and I speak for myself, not on behalf of Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Jefferson, Montesquieu, or any others. Those dead people do not live in my time nor know the democracy I live in. They are not my peers. Their thoughts are the living portrait of an anachronistic and often corny idealism, embellished by the academic ritual of citations, admirations, and other self-deceptions that gravitate in the History of ideas more dead – like them – than alive like our 21st century. We are not playing at resurrecting anyone. Originality resides in our time and, in any case, in our most immediate future, not in any past times, however much better or worse they may seem to us today.
I must also
state that this book does not adhere to any ideology, political orientation, or
philosophical school – philosophy is always a reflection of religions,
ideologies, or self-help scams. Whoever sees such implications in the pages of
this book will project a mirage never endorsed by the author. I am not, nor
will I ever be, responsible – nor the creator – of my possible readers' or
interpreters' hallucinations.
I want to make
it clear that philosophers interpret reality by reading philosophers. I
interpret it by living it. Above all, professionally. That is, facing it. I
don't need philosophers to tell me what the democracy I experience myself is
like, the one I have to struggle with and coexist with every day. I don't need
them to narrate the movie of which I am part, just like any other involved in
it, acting and working.
The day people
realize that philosophy is a form of arrogance – far superior to others –
behind which there is nothing more than religion overtaken by history, politics
saturated with utopian ideologies equally failed – or about to fail – and
mercantile self-help for the unfortunate and powerless, maybe they will
consider dedicating themselves to more useful things instead of being guinea
pigs for sociological and psychological experiments in the hands of others.
This book does
not speak of democracy as a myth or a political theory – another way of
recounting myths – but as a failure. As a historical failure specific to our
21st century. Let us allow ourselves to be conscious of it and say it.
Democracy in the 21st century has failed because the reality we have
democratically faced in recent decades has changed so precipitously and
irreversibly that our political system – the democratic one – can no longer
organize it. Nor explain it. Nor judge it, because its legislation is a
softness of erratic inadequacies and uncontrollable impotencies. The reality of
the 21st century is superior and irreducible to democracy. Naturally, such a
statement can be firmly denied, as it is done daily. But far from solving any
problem, it consolidates it in all its directions. There is talk of
"saving democracy," ignoring that the democracy to be saved is
precisely what has led us to this situation of political and democratic
failure. The survival of democracy is, at this moment, a collective
self-deception, increasingly difficult to sustain. We are unaware of the
consequences that the definitive collapse of this spell or delusion will
provoke, whose times are exhausted and numbered.
What will be
the political organization resulting from the historical failure of democracy
in the 21st century? Soon we will know. Those who have doubts can look at
China; perhaps they will find answers to their questions. A different matter is
whether that answer will be to their liking. At the moment, in the West, we are
in the acme of democratic delusion.
All we can
assert today is that our society's reality is no longer democratic – I speak of
reality, not the delusion – because our life no longer functions or organizes
itself democratically, although it seems so. Propaganda has effectively
replaced democracy. Perhaps definitively. But it cannot disguise its deceit.
Democracy has been mortgaged by the management of lies. In one way or another,
all idealism related to this system of government is left behind, to the extent
that ours is already a post-democratic society. From the political organization
of human freedom within the modern State, we have transitioned to the
mercantile administration of global money, lies, and ignorance. Freedom, the
State, and democracy are ideals of the past – hallucinations of the present –
absent from the post-democratic objectives of the 21st century. Today, the
"people's" goal is the pursuit of happiness: in the haystacks of
Babia.
Jesús G. Maestro
January 1, 2024.