The False Assumptions of Democracy

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The False Assumptions of Democracy was the name given by philosopher Anthony M. Ludovici to two of his major writings: a longer book, first published in 1921, and a series of articles published in the South African Observer from 1956 to 1958.Although they both bore the same name, the contents of each work was completely different. This new edition combines both works into one volume for the first time.In this book, Ludovici sets out the reasons why democracy, as practised in the current liberal west, is a fraud which deliberately misrepresents itself as "government by the people" when in fact it is a tightly-controlled autocracy in which the masses actually have little say in the day-to-day running of the affairs of state."It is therefore a manifest fraud to speak of Government, in the present English sense, as a 'Democracy' and to imply thereby that it bears any likeness to the only true Democracy - that of the ancient Greeks, which meant 'not government in the interests of the people, nor government by the people or their representatives, ' but 'direct management of the state by the mass of the people themselves.' Yet, when English statesmen and politicians, together with their credulous dupes, use the word 'Democracy' as denoting their form of government, their intention is obviously to give the impression that the Greek polysyllable, and all that it meant to the ancient Greek world, is being properly used to signify their own political system."His core argument is that "democracy"-as currently interpreted-is based on a theoretical, and utterly impossible, presumption of the inherent equality of all members of society."Democracy, cleared of all the idealistic froth with which demagogues are wont to recommend it, is merely a grandiose device for appeasing Envy. For to ache with the envy of privileges and powers which can be enjoyed only by being born of different parents, is intolerable. Thus, in a Democracy, the only differences tolerated are contingent on cash values, and the only inequalities suffered are therefore those which elevate a Plutocracy to the top, because this happens to be the sine qua non of everybody's having a chance of appeasing envy by acquiring cash worthiness. Democracy is consequently the polity of choice for an envious people."The author then moves to perceptively analyse society in all of its iterations-private property, the justice system, political construction, education and social policies, showing in each instance the contradictions inherent in modern "democracy."Finally, he posits the alternative: the development of an aristocratic ruling class through advanced eugenics, and more hands-on day-to-day decision making as the ancient Greeks originally envisioned government.