Beyond Fuzzy Democracy
A sound structure of electoral democracy and, therefore, properly representative parliaments would be a beginning, but much else is needed in parallel. Electoral democracy is one check & balance, but there need to be checks & balances elsewhere too.
I.
The most blatant deficiency, as we have witnessed grotesquely since 2020, is blanket propaganda from the long-established media & the internet oligarchs alongside the suppression of alternative sources of information and analysis. Consult and follow, for example, https://markcrispinmiller.com
Immediate corrective measures here would be:
* An end to the tax deductibility of expenditure on advertising,
* followed by a tax on advertising expenditure
* In countries where compulsory fees are imposed to fund public broadcasters, enable citizens to circumvent these legally by paying the fee (or maybe more) to a news service of their choice. This would not be a subscription, but a donation to fund news which is free to access. Recipients might include regional newspapers, which are essential to local democracy.
* Disallow shareholdings in private media companies of more than one percent.
There is more to be said here, some of which is at
http://www.klasseverantwortung.de/english/digitalincome.html
(The expression “digital income” has unfortunately taken on a completely different meaning, but what is intended is explained there.)
II.
In order to keep infantry mentally prepared to face physical danger in the event of battle, they are encouraged to engage in sports which are slightly dangerous and involve mild physical violence. Since 2020, at the latest, we have seen that, with notable exceptions, the professional classes have come to lack all moral fibre. At http://www.klasseverantwortung.de and in the book presented there I have proposed how moral fibre might be reinforced (and rewarded) in the professions. There is no cure-all, but there must be an end to the worst characters rising to positions at the top and, with impunity, remaining there for decades. Start early, and nip shoddy behaviour (whether of character or of judgement) in the bud, long before illegal acts are committed.
Part of the malaise comes from rules and codes of conduct running riot and achieving the exact opposite of what they are meant to do. See:
http://www.klasseverantwortung.de/english/Rules.html
If a muscle goes unused, it weakens. Rules & codes of conduct encourage people to stop using their own judgement and to justify their actions not by appeal to reason or conscience, but by appeal to the rulebook. The result is atrophy of what little moral fibre they may once have had.
III.
Since 2020 we have witnessed massive abuse of language. Those defending liberal & democratic principles are routinely maligned as fascist or extremist or extreme right-wing. Those providing well-documented and cogently explained information are accused of misinformation. The worst is so-called ethics committees whose members clearly have no inkling of ethics. For an inkling of ethics see: http://www.thinking-for-clarity.de
Such abuse of language and the fundamentals of logic, which throttles debate, is paving the way for untold civil conflict, including violence, since matters can no longer be settled otherwise. Once language is undermined, and absurdities allowed, a civilisation is at a tipping point with barbarity at the gates.
IV.
Perjury, i.e. lying under oath in a court of law, is punishable by prison. Persistent lying and the recitation of absurdities — i.e. in defiance of all logic and all evidence — by those in public office must similarly be made a criminal offence, punishable at least by the same penalty as for perjury, and arguably much more severely.
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