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Poland's Ruch Narodowy - should it be banned? [62]
Another problem with democracy is that it is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the human condition.
Democracy is based on the idea that humans are thinking animals. The idea is that if you present the electorate with a problem, they will think about the problem and vote accordingly. But we now know that this is a simplistic and naive model.
Under certain circumstances, humans can think. But generally, we try to avoid it. We have developed elaborate systems called "culture" that allow us to determine the answer to most political problems, without the need to think.
Imagine if you will that gay marriage had been put on the ballot in the 1870s. Would the electorate think through all of the possible effects that legalizing gay marriage would have on society? Would the electorate think through all of the possible effects that banning gay marriage would have on society? No, of course not. There wouldn't be any need to think, the electorate would already know how it feels about this issue, thanks to culture.
Not every political issue is covered by culture, some of them are too novel. But most issues are covered by culture. Culture allows us to determine what we approve of, what we disapprove of, what we like and what we hate, all without the need for tiresome and painful thinking.
Enculturation is the process whereby an individual human gains culture through interaction with other humans that already have it. Through this process, behaviors and values are shaped. It is continuous, ongoing and virtually unavoidable.
In the past, enculturation would have been performed by many individuals, including parents, peers, shamans, headmen, elders, poets, singers, storytellers, priests and the like. In today's society, an ever growing percentage of the enculturation process is handled by the mass media. As control of the major media outlets has been consolidated, so has control of the enculturation process. It is now possible for a few individuals and/or small groups to significantly influence the enculturation process of an entire country.
And they've done so. In 1996, two years after notable lesbian Ellen DeGeneres got her TV show, only 27% of Americans supported gay marriage. As favorable media coverage of homosexuals increased throughout the following decade, so did support for homosexuality. By 2007, the height of the pro-homo media blitz, 46% of Americans supported gay marriage. Today, 56% of American women support gay marriage. In a few decades the mass media was able to largely reverse anti-homosexual attitudes that had been in place for centuries. It's not so long ago that sodomy was entirely illegal in many states.
This is possible because humans don't actually think about this issue. For centuries, most of our ancestors were enculturated in a manner that led them to condemn homosexuality. There were a variety of reasons for this, but it wasn't necessary for most humans to think about those reasons, they just needed to receive the piece of culture that said "homosexuality is bad". But one day the masters of culture determined that it was desirable to reverse this policy and promote acceptance of homosexuality. Directed enculturation through the mass media is so effective that they were able to train Americans to accept homosexuality within a few decades.
Of course, homosexuality is just one example. An unimportant issue, but one where the enculturation was done in a rather obvious manner. Directed enculturation through the mass media is something that happens often and on a wide variety of issues.
Given the above, it isn't quite right to conceptualize man as a thinking animal. It is better to think of man as trainable animal that can think when it has to. Sort of like a slightly more thoughtful dog, without the innate moral compass that dogs have.
Letting a trained animal vote is fundamentally problematic, since you never really know if the animal is voting or if the trainer is voting through the animal. So much for one man one vote!
