“When the United States of America, which was meant to be a Utopia for all, was less than a century old, Noah Rosewater and a few men like him demonstrated the folly of the Founding Fathers in one respect: those sadly recent ancestors had not made it the law of the Utopia that the wealth of each citizen should be limited. This oversight was engendered by a weak-kneed sympathy for those who loved expensive things, and by the feeling that the continent was so vast and valuable, and the population so thin and enterprising, that no thief, no matter how fast he stole, could more than mildly inconvenience anyone …
Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.
E pluribus unum is surely an ironic motto to inscribe on the currency of this Utopia gone bust, for every grotesquely rich American represents property, privileges, and pleasures that have been denied the many.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
What is a Polyarchy?
Polyarchy — a system of elite rule (softer than a military dictatorship) in which the masses of people are allowed to vote, at intervals of time, for one or another representative of the elite. A system where the participation of masses of people is limited to voting among one, or more, representatives of the elite class in periodic elections. Between elections the masses are expected to keep quiet, go on about their business, living life as usual, while the elite make decisions and take action in the world … until the next election when the people are given the opportunity to, once again, choose from among the vetted agents of elite interests. A system of elite rule in which the basic socio-economic system does not change; it does not become democratized, wealth does not get distributed widely. Under a polyarchy wealth is concentrated into fewer and fewer hands; the masses of people have less and less wealth while the elites have more and more wealth … it is a socio-economic dictatorship with free elections, rather than a millitary dictatorship.
Perhaps what we really have is a polyarchy posing as a representative democracy …
be it as it may be
as it may be true
whatever it is
it is
whatever it is …
Truth may not claim to be anything other than truth.
Falsehood may claim to be anything at all including truth.
… a representative democracy seeks not only more participation from people in the running of their daily affairs (requiring less bureaucracy); but, a democratization of the economy, and a democratization of social relations as well … the opposite of a polyarchy …
The classic work Politics by Aristotle advocates restricting inequality in a democracy … In the USA, Madison among others, made persuasive arguments to restrict democracy instead of inequality …
Thus the system we see circa 2016 …