Democracy?

In the wake of the Local Government Elections (LGE 2016), I'm reminded once again about how amazing our democracy is. It may be young and may have it's own problems, but here in South Africa we have possibly one of the truest forms of democracy in the world.

Now it may not be perfect and recently I've heard many say democracy is an ineffective system of government. However, only having known a democracy I'm not sure I'd be able to live in a country whose system of government leaves little to control in the hands of the people who live, work and pay taxes there.

Following the Brexit story (and that's a whole other monster). I recognised a huge problem stemming from a non-democracy, attempting to vote. The British people (from what I saw) don't really vote and when they do, it bares no real consequence. Whether or not you believe that leaving or staying in the EU was the correct move, the fact that so few people voted because they, "didn't believe it would make a difference" or they "did think it would ever happen", just goes to show how little the people in the UK understand about the impact of voting. And the US also has a certain disregard for democracy and the voting system. In fact the founding fathers thought it to be a useless form of governance and voting shouldn't be left to the public, but rather it should be left to an elite few. These selected few would then decide for the rest of the country, The implication here is that you and I, the average "plebs" cannot and should not have a say in what happens in the country we are basically sustaining.

Now the rest of the world may not see the problem in that, but when people relinquish autonomy and allow others to decide for them, as far as I'm concerned, they are infantilising themselves and saying they do not want nor can they make decisions for themselves and instead, they make slaves of themselves.

Having said that the UK seems to never have had any real power or autonomy and therefore when given a referendum they had no idea how to handle it. (Again an outsider's perspective and not an unshakable truth)

There have been many countries, particularly in Africa whose democracy quickly turned into a dictatorship. However I believe in South Africans and I believe that as long as we have our democracy (one with a multiplicity of representitives) and we refuse to be bought or blinded, our voices and and will be heard and we will not allow some faceless nameless organisation decide what is best for us. We are already saying no to Jacob Zuma's corrupt ANC. Our leaders are there to represent us not control us. and when they no longer do that then they need to go.

Go and watch or re-watch V for Vendetta. Don't let your voices be silenced and don't let differing opinions be stifled.




I'm Just Sayin'