10. On Democracy

Controversial opinion of the day. Winston Churchill famously said that democracy is the worst way of running a state apart from everything else we’ve tried. One of our hosts rejects this, and says that actually we know of and have tried far better ways of steering the ship of state.

We talk of the original, some say ideal, democracy - Athens. Did Athens do better over the long term than its non-democratic neighbors? Probably, but the timescale is short. Did democracy lead to better decision making in the detail? No. Democrats killed Socrates. And then the Sicilian expedition, mentioned in Thucydides, shows the assembly of a radical democracy being persuaded to make a terrible geostrategic error by a demagogue whipping them into a frenzy.

What are we looking for when we’re choosing a system of government? Perhaps 1) high average quality of ruler, 2) stable transitions of power, 3) legitimacy, and 4) a method of selecting leaders that is consistent with the stories the nation tells itself.

And the latter is most important. While we can argue about how to steer and trim the ship of state, deciding where to sail it is most important, and here vibes and aesthetics start to matter more. Sacral kingship has undeniably better vibes and aesthetics than democracy. It reflects a desire for struggle, greatness, agency, the overcoming of obstacles, and this contrasts with the passivity, complacency, stasis, security, and safety evoked by democracy.

ALL WE WANT, IS TO SERVE A GREAT KING, WITH MUCH HONOUR