Thinking about Democracy.
NOTE: Tola’s note is a journal about some activities I engaged in during the week(Month). Let's dive in!
CODE
Hi everyone, I started Nodejs and I absolutely love it. It feels like doing real programming when I work with the terminal and I'm always amazed when my code runs. I guess I've still not gotten used to the surprise effect that my working code can have on me.
I created this simple rock-paper-scissors with node. Click on the index.html to view the code. Also, I promised to show the Virtual card project the last time I wrote to you but it hasn't been coupled together because of some problems on our teams. Hopefully, it is available next week.
Books.
I started reading Shadow and Bone, and I've not finished it yet even though It's been a month since I started it. I have observed I am not a natural fiction reader. If anyone told me this two years ago, I could break a bottle(😂). I've struggled to finish every book of fiction I picked up after I stopped writing fiction. Reading fiction went hand in hand with writing it. Doing one part of it without the other still feels strange. Therefore, I have decided to stop reading fiction until I am ready to start writing again. Within the one month I've been on this book, I would have read four non-fiction books. I'm sorry Dara, I won't be able to finish the book ):
Thoughts.
I have been thinking about the concept of democracy and how it has some flaws that, if not corrected, could lead to an undesirable future.
Democracy as defined by Abraham Lincoln is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Typically, decisions are determined by the choice of the majority of people. I believe the idea of democracy was instituted to take authoritarian power away from Monarchs who made rash decisions at the expense of the masses(read about the story of Nero) and hand it over to the people themselves.
One thing democracy doesn't account for, is, what kind of majority of people make choices that determine the fate of the whole? A majority population of poor people paid to come and vote to determine the fate of a system, is it still democracy? Also, democracy assumes that the majority of people instinctively know what is good for them. If the majority of people decide to choose a metaphorically blind leader to lead the way, they have chosen what is best in the context of democracy.
There are no systems to filter the best people that can lead a system in the concept of Democracy. Just be wealthy and be popular, and you have a fair chance to lead any system that runs on democracy. There's no account for whether you can perform in that post you are running for.
In contrast, in places that don't operate a democracy and have systems in place to filter their leaders, they have a fair chance of competing against the elitist society of democracy. If democracy is going to survive in the long term, I believe it needs to factor in meritocracy in its selection process. Even if the majority of people are going to be bought, they are sure to be choosing among competent leaders. But if a leader would be buying votes to lead, are they worthy of that position? Anyways, this is something I have been thinking about.
There are no perfect systems but the biggest error is not improving them😪.
Shadow and bones mi🙃