I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy — not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you. Democracy begins with freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom from fear, and freedom from hatred. To me, those are the real freedoms on the basis of which good human societies are based.
Vandana Shiva
America is the poster child for collapsed social trust.
Fareed Zakaria
According to Joe Biden, as he said at the White House correspondents’ dinner, “American democracy is not a reality show. It’s not a reality show. It’s reality itself.”
Very passionate, but he’s wrong. American democracy, is in fact, very much a reality show. Reality itself is capitalism—the ‘invisible hand’ with which property owners invest their capital—manipulating, exploiting and destroying communities all around the world. Liberal democracy is a game, in which some people claim they can control capitalism. Just like a reality TV show.
The contestants (politicians) participate in various activities (debates, rallies, media appearances, canvassing...) hoping to be chosen by the viewers (electorate). If chosen, they generally have four years to prove themselves to avoid being voted off the island of economic control. The producers of the show (corporations, hedge funds, the IMF, Davos attendees, think tanks...) are permitted to fill all forms of media with their expectations (low taxes, privatization, de-regulation, high stock prices...) as challenges for the politicians to meet. Even politicians who truly wish to put people before profits, have no power to do so under the current system.
If voting could actually change anything, it would be illegal.