by Jeff Thomas, International Man:
In the run-up to an election in any westernised country, candidates are forever reminding us that the opposing political party and its candidates intend to take away our democracy. Far less time is spent warning us that the accused party will tax us heavily, destroy the economy, or take away our liberty.
Whether or not democracy should be the most important issue to the voter, the political parties unquestionably want it to be uppermost in the minds of voters… and they want voters to be in fear of losing it.
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So, let’s step back a bit and have a look at this sacred cow. Consider the system it replaced and why it figures so prominently in today’s political rhetoric.
Democracy has been around in one form or another for millennia, but it really came to prominence following the Middle Ages. It replaced the feudal system – a system that’s looked upon today as having been quite primitive.
Back then, many people owned small plots of land, which they generally farmed. Those who owned no land often approached a nobleman who owned large tracts of land. He would provide the landless with a section of land to be farmed. In return, the standard payment was “One day’s labour in ten.” In essence, this meant that the nobleman would receive 10% of your crop, whatever it might be. The nobleman’s henchmen would serve as collectors in good times, and as an army, if invasion occurred.
Chances are, the serf would remain on the property for life, as might subsequent generations.
So, what happened to this deal? Why did it fall out of favour?
Well, not surprisingly, anyone who was beholden to a nobleman was likely to resent the fact that he was dependent upon him. The rich man in the castle was the perfect demon – easy to focus on as the sole cause of all that was ill.
Eventually, towns sprang up, and anybody who could cover the expense of building a shop could use it to ply his trade, becoming independent from the noblemen. Not surprisingly, this newfound freedom appealed to many, and towns grew, some expanding into cities. Along the way, castles fell into disrepair, and noblemen no longer had the economic clout they once had.
So, it would seem that that would spell the end of privileged rulers who lived off the poor vassals. But that’s not what happened. There will always be those who seek to live off the hoi polloi like ticks. Such people soon set themselves up as mayors, and on higher levels, members of parliament, etc.
So, instead of resenting a single nobleman, the average man had a host of people to resent. And, after all, who were these leaders? What right did they have to rule over others?
This problem was solved brilliantly with the adoption of democracy.
On the surface, democracy represents liberty – free choice. The average man, no matter how poor and insignificant, has an “equal right” to vote. In his eyes, he has taken part in choosing whether he wants Candidate A or Candidate B to rule over him.
The voter is so pleased with the appearance of choice that it rarely occurs to him that neither Candidate A nor Candidate B has any intention of representing his needs. Quite the opposite: both candidates fully intend to represent themselves and the system that made their rise possible.
And herein lies the beauty of democracy to the would-be ruler: Once the voter has accepted the democratic system, he can be enslaved to a far greater degree than he could have been under a lone nobleman. At best, the voter gets to switch oppressors every few years at election time. As Thomas Jefferson said,
“Democracy is no more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.”
But the true beauty of democracy is that, since the voter feels he’s been given a choice, whatever comes out of that choice is somehow “fair.” He will now tolerate whatever level of oppression is placed upon his shoulders, even if the victor was not the candidate he voted for.
But surely this is an exaggeration. Surely, the voter retains his power of reason, and that will continue to remind him of what is “fair” and what is not.
Well, let’s go back to that “one day’s labour in ten.” It was by no means arbitrary – no law enforced it. It was the level of taxation that seemed reasonable to the largest number of people, and so it eventually became the standard.
Compare that to the present day. Income tax, property tax, climate tax, capital gains tax, sales tax, stamp tax, inheritance tax, value-added tax, corporation tax, and an endless list of taxes and duties on consumables and services. Today, taxation covers so much ground and is so convoluted that it’s virtually impossible to figure out what the total might be. But, let there be no doubt: the total far exceeds the 10% that the average serf would have thought reasonable.
Democracy really pays.
And it’s significant to note that, while in the Middle Ages, the nobleman did at least provide land to his serfs, this is no longer true of today’s governments. (My own family lost the family castle, Leybourne Grange, to the taxman in the 1960s. Under UK government ownership, it has since fallen into ruin – worthless to anyone.)
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