Why Democracy Doesn't Work

Critical stands against democracy, when not simply ignored or mechanically rejected as mere fascist outbursts, are usually met with a supposedly wise objection: You may be right, except that you’re targeting an imperfect form of democracy.  Thus, Tocqueville never addressed the principle; he decreed democracy would perfect itself as it matured.

This is why I shall not contend that democracy does not work well because some glitches need correction.  Democracy does not work because it cannot work, no more than a car without wheels; and it only seems to work because people still practice the ways of predemocratic times.  To put it in a nutshell, my point will be that nothing unnatural is viable, and democratic societies, being unnatural ones (as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the pope of democracy, himself confessed), are no exception to the rule.

The most visible characteristic of all things or beings that may be called natural is their everlasting permanence: Either they do not change at all (stones remain stones), or when they do it is only to go back to where they started from.  (Dust returns to dust; organisms only grow old to be born again as they keep living in their offspring.)  Nature is but the ever-changing guise of immutability.  Unbeknownst to many of his fans, even Darwin never claimed one species could evolve into a different one.  He merely claimed nature constantly created random variations...


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