http://yatsen1911.xanga.com/728158326/democracy/
One of my former students raised an interesting question about democracy: she wondered if democracy is so perfect that everyone describe? I'm very, very, very, very glad that she can raise such question: I'm very, very, very, very proud that my students, whether under my guidance, aren't the person that only follow the fashion without any thinking and questioning!
I don't remember since when I've started committing myself to defend democracy and I never doubt such value. However, just like the other universal values (普世價值), such as environmental protection & equality etc., have we considered democracy as nothing but just a myth??? (if so, that'll be very, very, very, very dangerous...)
I'd like to point out:
- Almost every nation, including China, in the modern world claims herself as a democratic nation; however, what is true democracy? Such argument even exist within the Western world!!!
- It's very ironic that democracy, at the beginning, mainly benefited the wealthy & professional classes; in other words, they used democracy as a tool to seize power from the feudal nobles; i.e. the French Revolution
- The grass-rooted class; e.g. workers and farmers, weren't benefited under the democratic system until the rise of socialism and communism in late-19th century
- Many people, including scholars, do point the weaknesses of democracy; e.g. JFC Fuller (富勒), one of my favourite military strategists, always criticized that people become more and more selfish in the democratic society
- Democratic gov'ts in Italy, Germany & Japan (and also some nations) were overthrown by the totalitarian regimes (極權政權) in 1920s-1930s, under mass support. Even in the traditional democratic nations, such as Great Britain, France & USA, more and more people started doubting democracy. Such experience clearly showed democracy isn't so perfect as we imagine: to the people at that time, they had the reasons to judge if the democratic gov'ts mainly served the wealthy class which led the Great Depression in 1929...
- Many politicans, especially the war-hawks in USA, use democracy, by raising people emotion, to achieve their own ambitions...
- It's very easy for the public to misunderstand the basic principle of democracy: people only emphaize on "right", but always forget "duty"...
Ironic? Yes!!! Then why should we still commit in defending democracy? Though democracy isn't the best, it is still better than other political systems, at least it guarantees, or allows, the equality of participation in the public affairs.
My student also wondered something wrong to the principle of democracy when she's observing the recent development of HK society: it seems that everyone, even including the democrats & activists (社運份子), don't accpet different values in the society...
In this case:
- Fundamentalism (原教旨主義) does exist in every religion and belief; in other words, fundamentalism not only exists in conservatism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism etc., but also exists in liberalism, democratism, environmentalism, socialism and conservationism etc. And this is what I'm worried about: fundamentalism will raise hatred within a society
- It is very dangerous for the fundamentalist to consider themselves as Crusaders (十字軍): they think they are defending the truth
- As the people only emphaize on their right, it is very easy to blind themselves to different views
To sum up, it is necessary not to forget flexibility, reason (理性), logic (邏輯) and common sense (常理); otherwise, even democracy is nothing but just a fundamentalist thinking...