S. is on its way to chaos, anarchy and a national catastrophe. The pursuit of individual freedom without respect for authority will eventually lead to these consequences. What keeps U.S. strong and independent is that free enterprise and not the illusion of a contemporary democracy. A basic difficulty in American democracy is its attempt to mitigate all the aspects of negative human nature. Criminals are given equal rights as honorable individuals. Dysfunctional citizens are given thorough protection by the Constitution and allowed to practice their negative behavior in the same environment as honorable and conscientious citizens, shielded equally by laws and served by greedy lawyers and the first 10 amendments to the Constitution. These 10 amendments undermine the teachings of the Ten Commandments and thus destabilize the foundations of the Republic. The prevailing hypocrisy of democracy has been weakening the republic and will eventually lead to the decline and fall of the much envied American way of life. Another basic weakness of the current American democracy is the fact that only 40-50% of its eligible population actually casts votes in national, state and local elections. This means that the outcome of elections does not represent the will of the majority, which is the foundation of a democracy. Citizens who do not participate in this very important exercise of their freedom and performance of their obligation should be denied citizenship and the privilege of voting. American democracy derives from suspicious assumptions that man is innately good and can be trusted and that he cares about himself and the world. People should earn the privileges they enjoy and maintain them only through honorable public goals and behaviors. These earned privileges should not be permanent but subject to termination in case of misconduct, such as illegal drug use, abuse of oneself or others, criminal behavior and general contempt toward persons and society. Problems of the current democratic form of government in the U.S. can be handled only by reforming...
Plato and other ancient thinkers and American founding fathers were moral men who set before themselves models of public conduct and independent spirit, which should be imitated and should be the basis of laws and practices (Wiessner).
American democracy is thus destined to allow mediocrity by allowing individual misconduct under the guise of attaining individual freedom, by increasing crime, and encouraging poorly or non-motivated citizens to thrive in this democracy (Wiessner 2006). The best form of government would be Plato's concept of a Republic, which will treat rights and privileges as things earned through achievement and accomplishment and maintained by constant commitment and dedicated and voluntary service to society. A truly effective government should support citizen privileges of this kind rather than inalienable rights of everyone. Not everyone can be trusted with absolute freedom. Some people can and do endanger the rights and safety of others and their own and must, therefore, be controlled. The prevailing American representative democracy has proved to be inefficient in that hard-working upper middle class citizens contribute almost 50% of their yearly incomes in taxes to subsidize the rest, in terms of housing and public school education, who work much less harder but become the beneficiaries of material comforts and medical and social benefits equally made available to them (Wiessner). Plato could have prophesied some of the dire consequences of a democratic system of government in Book 7, symbolized as grim shadows and habitual darkness.
Bibliography
1. Plato. (c 390). The Republic. http://web.lamoyne.edu/coursesformation/Magee/PHL101/Plato%20%20Republic%20%20Book%20VII.pdf
2. Taylor, T. (2006). The Republic - Book 7. Series Volume IX. http://www.prometheus.cwc.net/republic7.htm
3. Wiessner, J. (2006). The Trouble with American Democracy. http://www.authorsden.com/ArticlesUpload/20268.doc
