Saturday 19 March 2016

Ochlocracy Bumps Oligarchy: Democracy 3.0 arrives with Sanders and Trump. We're next.

Democracy, like True Christianity, has never been tried.  You may not like it.  Everybody gets a say, including the unwashed and, the low information voters who heretofore saw no reason to take part in politics but now find social media and the internet and the comment pages give them a front seat.   I think democracy was promoted by those next to power but lacking the wealth, force and connections to prevail on their own terms.   Extending the vote brought crowd backing to this lot who wanted to drink at the governing teat.     Events have overtaken them.  Now Trump phones it in and tweets it in and gets a billion dollars free publicity.  Sanders appeals to some of the same people whose opinions lack that certain je ne sais quoi.   This isn't the end game, just the end of politics as we had come to know it.

Something similar happened in music.
You could make a living working for the king or the bishop. Then in Mozart's day, you could make a living working for various lords and even the occasional rich merchant.  In our lifetime, you could make it by contracting with a secular record label and getting air time lined up on the radio.  Now you can take your talent to the masses and get money selling downloads by the millions.  The middle men are disappearing.   Trump has few middlemen, almost no one he owes favour to except to the crowd. He is crowd-funding his run for the presidency.  Political operatives are being downsized.

My new favourite word: Ochlocracy: rule by the masses

No comments:

Post a Comment