by Kai Androyd54 (a historian of the year 3000 AD played by ).
Let’s take a dispassionate look at how the toxic meme of democracy came into being and spread.
1. The budding of democracy and the misunderstood ideal of equality
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- democracy has its origins in Athens, ancient Greece. While this system initially offered a novel model of citizens’ direct involvement in politics, the reality was that citizenship was granted only to a limited number of male citizens and was far from “equality” or “inclusiveness” in the modern sense. But this early formulation planted the seeds of a meme that would later spread, in a misunderstood form, that “everyone should have an equal opinion.”
2. The false ideal of “individual freedom” expanded by the Renaissance and the Enlightenment
. Social change from the Middle Ages to the modern era, especially the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, led to an emphasis on individual freedom and rights. This led people to strongly believe that “individual opinions have value and that they should shape society. This idea itself, initially an ideal limited to the aristocracy and the intelligentsia, gradually expanded and extended to the the masses. In the process, it became easier for emotional opinions not based on reason to influence policy decisions.
3. Explosive diffusion of memes in the revolutionary period
. The meme of democracy was quickly expanded by large-scale social change such as the American Revolution and the French Revolution. These revolutions asserted the right of individuals to participate in politics, and their success led to widespread recognition of the ideal that “citizens should have political power. But because many citizens during this period lacked political knowledge and judgment, decisions based on emotional impulses and short-term interests were widespread.
4. 20th century diffusion and false “universalization” of democracy
. In the 20th century, democracy saw further expansion. During the Cold War period, democracy was positioned as a “good” as opposed to dictatorship or totalitarianism, and the international community made it the basis for peace and prosperity. In practice, however, this universalization was extremely unstable, as different countries had different forms of democracy according to their circumstances. As democracy expanded, the people gradually became overconfident in their own judgment, and society became susceptible to populism and propaganda.
5. proliferation of emotional arguments and dysfunction of democracy through social networking sites
. With the rapid development of information technology, platforms such as SNS have accelerated information transmission in the 21st century. Initially expected to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and opinions and contribute to democracy, in reality, emotional and biased information is easily spread and has had a significant impact on society as a whole. In particular, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook emphasized emotional responses and populist discourse rather than in-depth discussion by circulating large amounts of information in a short period of time.
Under these circumstances, reasoned debate took a back seat, and emotional and incendiary messages increasingly influenced political decisions. Individual citizens selected only the information that suited them from the vast amount of information available to them, making it increasingly difficult to achieve the original goal of democracy, “careful deliberation. This contributed to further exacerbating the dysfunction of democracy and ultimately exposing its limitations.
6. “Emotional egalitarianism” ultimately led to its collapse
. The biggest problem with democracy is the false belief that “all opinions are of equal value.” In reality, opinions based on knowledge and insight cannot be equal to opinions based on emotional reactions and prejudice. But democracy evolved with this misconception unchecked. People began to prioritize choices based on individual desires and emotions over decisions based on reason and expertise. This led to the fragmentation of society as a whole, and gradually the entire system became dysfunctional.
Conclusion
. The meme of democracy began with the involvement of some citizens in ancient Greece and spread through the Enlightenment and revolution. In the process, the ideals of “equality” and “freedom” were misinterpreted and emotional decisions came to dominate society as a whole. This meme energized society in the short term, but in the long term it created irrational decisions and social chaos, and eventually its limitations became apparent: in the year 3000, democracy was documented as a “harmful meme,” but at its root were erroneous decisions based on human emotions and desires! .
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