The Apolitician: Iraqi Democracy

The recent election in Iraq and the political turmoil surrounding it's results make me think about how lucky I am for being born an American. The domestic politics of the day can make it seem that every executive, legistative and judicial decision will effect the fate of the nation. Editorials pro and con on every proposal, suggestion and utterance of our elected and appointed representatives can give the impression that we're tettering on the ledge, ready to take the plunge and lose our liberties, traditions, rights, ethics, heart or morality. Is this federal republic that brittle? Is our democracy so weak? Is our future one of the great empires of the past; decline and then end, or is America that shining city on the hill that President Reagan spoke of? Should this be a debate between pessimism and optimism, or between the ideologies of socialism and capitalism. Which ideology is pessimistic and which is optimistic?

The socialist might say that capitalism is the pessimistic ideology because it says man is materialistic and his greed must be used to advance the country. The capitalist may reply that no, capitalism is optimistic for that very reason, because it trusts the indivdual to organize his affairs and that socialism is pessimisitic because it takes those desicions due to lack of faith in him. No, the socialist will retort, that capitalism has kept the individual from understanding the social sciences and that the socialist is optimistic because he believes he is smart enough to do the right thing for the largest number of people.

Yikes! This is going to get circular real fast. Let's say that both ideologies have aspects that can be argued to be optimistic and pessimistic. What does history say about these ideologies? Let's look at two well known examples of both ideologies: the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Wait, the modern socialist will say, the Soviets were not a pure example of socialism because they didn't follow the ideology properly. The capitalist will say America isn't a capitalistic society because it has a lot of socialist policies.

Well, I think we've arrived at Utopianism, the ideology of the perfect society. Can that work? The argument appears to be mired in the definition of terms. Are we all postmodernists now? Is the subjective definition of terms and argument how people operate?

I guess we could kill each other until one ideology wins and then enforce that outcome on people who change their minds or are born with different ideas? With dictatorship, we could perpetuate that victory of ideology, by imprisoning or killing dissenters. This doesn’t sound good. Is there another way to resolve the differences between ideologies and govern countries? Have we arrived at democracy?

Wait a minute; doesn’t this argument mean that we should support the mission in Iraq? I’m not sure, but we are going to learn a lot about democracy and ourselves through the war in Iraq.

After writing this, I feel certain that I’m very fortunate to have been born an American, and that I hope the Iraqis can find some of that fortune as they form their democracy.