
Salim Ismail – Our democracy is about to collapse - rmchugh
http://tv.ida.dk/video/13916220/salim-ismail-vores-demokrati-er-ved-at-kollapse
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kalekold
I turned off after he implied Brexit was a bad thing and that people were just
frightened into voting for it. It's nonsense to suggest that the majority vote
was either a bad thing or done out of fear. It happened because politicians
didn't listen to voters or do anything about their concerns and money was
always the deciding factor in everything they do.

If politicians don't represent the will of the people, a revolution will
ensue.

~~~
uola
Investors speaking without the chance of rebuttal from people who have
significant experience in the subject is pretty useless. Another thing that
stand out is presenting Switzerland as a role model, which has been far from
problem free. Universal suffrage wasn't fully implemented until 1991 (1971 on
a federal level), it's the most expensive country in Europe, have had huge
drug problems as a result of public policy and want to stop immigration
similarly to the UK.

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mistermann
Gosh Switzerland sounds like a terrible place. I have always wanted to go
there for a vacation, but now I'm not so sure, is it even safe to visit?

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uola
I assume you're being sarcastic, but while I like Switzerland it is a peculiar
place. It's not at all uncommon that visitors experience culture shock,
thinking people are unfriendly and not realizing how expensive things are. I
wouldn't schedule a longer family vacation without doing some research,
especially if you have family members that aren't flexible.

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sremani
I will be critical of Salims point esp. about India. During its democracy for
the first 25 years of India was pretty much One party system, the real problem
was Nehruvian Socialism and strong Unionism(not trade unions). India is a one
nation, but many countries, and these two system ravaged the inherent strength
and diversity, with concentration of power in New Delhi.

Post liberalized India, where ever Government has "no role" actually grew
tremendously well, and has done well. In India's case, the democracy is messed
up at multiple levels because loyalties are more nativist rather than
ideological (which is changing at least in urban India). Democracy actually
got better in India in the past 20 years. The intimidation that was prevalent
in 90s was not there and more and more people are voting outside their caste
and religious loyalties.

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denzil_correa
It's in vogue to pin all issues about India on Nehruvian socialism based on
hindsight.

~~~
sremani
India has many problems, but most economic problems rose from Command and
Control economy, that gave raise to rampant corruption, smuggling (for Gold
and electronics) and many other things. Yes, most of the economic issues have
texture to them but the main ingredient was government trying to control the
markets, Nehru style. I could care less if it in vogue, nor it would be
foolish to even think India has fully unburdened itself from Nehruvian
Socialism, honestly its not even hindsight, NS is thriving in plain sight
again at the cost the people and economy. The Indian Public sector banks are
case and point.

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ommunist
The initial meaning of the Greek word "idiot" was reserved for persons not
interested and non-participating in political process, especially elections.

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tremon
missing a [video] tag.

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dschiptsov
Oh, that's simple. Democracy "works" only when majority of population is well-
educated and cultured, and it tends to collapse when wast majority is
ignorant, brainwashed by populism and dogmas idiots.

From the time of ancient Greek only educated men could be able to vote. That
accounts for obvious early success of democracy. It also correlates with the
notion of the bell curve (there is a famous book) you like it or not.

The utopian idea that everyone shall be able to vote leads to things like
Brexit or that unrepairable disaster modern authoritarian Russia turned into.

Patients shall not vote for hospital's rules and medical procedures or staff
election. Qualified well-educated doctors should. Students shall not vote for
what they going to be taught (due to being not yet fully developed and
brainwashed by media), this seems obvious.

But the idea of necessity of some sort of competent and educated "aristocracy"
is one of the major ideas in political philosophy. The crucial thing is that
members of such aristocracy must be quickly and easily replaced when fail or
lost support. This, by the way, is how most of professional communities and
university facilities are organized.

Truth is out there.)

~~~
anotherarray
No. Well-educated, cultured individuals can be just as ideological and
destructive as "mere plebs". Take a look at contemporary Academia.

What makes a democracy "work" is a set of established rules that secures the
long-term development of the country.

~~~
jondubois
Agreed, even highly intelligent people can be completely oblivious to certain
basic things or have severely skewed views of reality which may actually be
worse for society than mere stupidity.

