Worth talking of the pros and cons of a Democracy vs. a Republic. Are we sure listening to a lot of people makes long term sense?
Problem is, a non-binding referendum with just a binary subject with virtually zero clarity on how the process will be exercised was shoved down our throats. It's easy to blame the masses but the real problem was created by the politicians (e.g. David Cameron/the Tories) and their arrogance and short-sightedness.
Neither side chose to express the positives.
Brexiters were portrayed as small-minded xenophobes.
The EU took the "We won't throw you a bone, what are you going to do about it?" approach.
If there was a middle-ground option it would have won by a landslide.
I don't see large enough majority worthy of this amount of change.
-George Carlin
Really makes you wonder if the populous can be trusted to make big decisions. I'd like to think I'm a smart person but I'm not sure if I'm smart enough (or dumb enough) for politics.
They can't. That's why we elect representatives who should be talking to experts and figuring out the impact of decisions. And then for some reason they take the biggest decision of our generation, give it to us, lie to us about the impact, and tell us to ignore the experts.
This article blew my mind. https://medium.com/incerto/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e...
"I think the people in this country have had enough of experts" - Michael Gove
I realize how stupid I am in a lot of areas. And if I think I'm better than others, it's in my ability to realize my shortcomings.
If only people more knowledgable than me ruled (and there's obviously nothing stopping me from learning/becoming more involved), I'd be very happy, even if I knew too little to get a vote.
Plato classifies democracy as the least effective political system when it's good and the least worst whenit's corrupt (Politikos 302b-303c), and I think that's sort if a nice trade off, but functions better when fake religions like nationalism and patriotism are not around and the countries are smaller.
"Democracy" and "Republic" are overlapping categories, rather than opposed ones.