Friday, August 15, 2014

Democracy: The Show Must Go On

My maître à penser once wrote:
America is often cited to us: I know nothing so provoking as the praise showered on this babe-in-arms: let it grow.
It has certainly grown!  Oh, how it has grown!  Such praise now provokes only silent chuckles and agnostic grins among the wise - and even just the learned.

The Los Angeles Times reports:
Alarmed that fewer than one-fourth of voters are showing up for municipal elections, the Los Angeles Ethics Commission voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council look at using cash prizes to lure a greater number of people to the polls. 
On a 3-0 vote, the panel said it wanted City Council President Herb Wesson's Rules, Elections and Intergovernmental Relations Committee to seriously consider the use of financial incentives and a random drawing during its elections, possibly as soon as next year. 
Depending on the source of city funds, the idea could require a ballot measure. Commissioners said they were unsure how big the prizes should be or how many should be offered, saying a pilot program should first be used to test the concept.
Long has the farce of America's government indicted the likes of Thomas Jefferson as hopelessly naive, fundamentally misguided, and remarkably juvenile charlatans.  It would appear, though, that the Los Angeles City Council is determined to render the humiliation of the so-called Founding Fathers a bit more thorough by elevating the comedy of American theater "democracy" to the genuinely surreal.

An American sensation once unwittingly encapsulated the American devotion to democratic principles:
The show must go on 
I'll face it with a grin 
I'm never giving in 
On with the show
Gnon's retort:
So be it.  [A French translation: Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite.]

No comments:

Post a Comment