One man, no votes... or maybe two

Plato was right thousands of years ago when he pointed out that democracy has some huge problems as a general governing system. Many his of reasons are not sound, but less democracy would help America immesurably.

I have two central problems with democracy. First, people are willing to accept anything as long as they feel (as opposed to think) that they have had a say in the decision making. Freedom is much easier to take away when the soccer moms feel empowered. We are significantly less free than were the subjects of Europe during the Age of Kings. The highest tax rates at that time rarely reached ten percent. Now, many Americans pay one-third of their income to our rulers. Those kind of taxes would have caused most peasants to chop the head off the their local duke. When was the last time the great unwashed took a pitchfork brigade to the state capital to stop property tax boosts? Citizens are much more jealous of their freedom under a sovereign ruler.

Democracy also leads to lowest common denomenator policies. Simply put, and you'll either agree with me or not, the opinion of the majority of plebes is not as legitimate as previous forms of governance. When a king, who technically owned the country, made a pronouncement, he was setting policies of how things are done on his own land. Now, a plurality (not even always a majority) of citizens tell everyone how to do things on their own property. More importantly, when monarchs were crowned by popes and in turn local aristocrats were knighted by those monarchs, authority was subordinated to Holy Mother Church, the truest source of legitimacy there ever will be. These situations provide much more governmental legitimacy than our current system. The Church was also a true "check and balance" over earthly powers, unlike our government, where the three branches collude more than they check.

We need less democracy and more aristocracy. I'll touch on these topics in later posts, but we need to restrict the suffrage of certain groups, like state employees, and maybe give two votes to other constituencies, like priests and homeowners. And ideally, the president should be resubordinated to the Pontiff, at least in ceremony.

The wages of ass-backwardness

One of my female relatives, whom I love dearly, has always lived her life in a Modernist fashion. I've never agreed with the way she raised her children or practically anything else she did. Now, I keep my thoughts to myself, as it's not my place to criticise, but recent events show that you can't wallow in nonsense and escape unscathed.



Without drubbing about too much in details, let me briefly point out a few wacky issues: fad diets, child psychology books, not letting her children have "violent" toys, liberal Catholic ideology, filling up her every spare minute with part-time jobs (when hubby makes six figures), and a peculiar DARE-like love-hate attitude toward drugs. Some of these foibles have already come home to roost in horrifying ways, and I've been impressed at the way the family handles them.

Now, she's leaving her husband for someone she met working at a second (or is it third) job. She's not even asking for custody of the youngest child. We hear explanations largely based on "finding herself." This family is in utter disarray thanks to a clear lack of perspective. The only sanity in this world is to be found in the larger things: God, beauty, history, philosophy, and love. Intellectual myopia leads to heartbreakingly avoidable discord.

Humility and hot dogs

Check out the Shrine of the Holy Whapping. So called "Catholic Nerds" at Notre Dame, their knowledge and mirth make me realize how little I can contribute to a conversation compared to my betters.

On another note, I've discovered why Christ came to Earth as a Jew. It was for Hebrew National Kosher Beef Franks in a Blanket. Too bad He didn't have access to spicy deli-style mustard. Wow!