Democracy And Liberty

These days you rarely hear the expression 'the Free World', an expression that was common during the Cold War. The Anglo Saxon powers in particular were proud of their tradition of Common Law and the accountability of governments before the law and to representative assemblies. From the times of Robin Hood the proud boast of the Englishman was that he was free born, and although there have been many exceptions, he was free to say and to do as he pleased.
But these days leading politicians such as the Prime Minister, never refer to the free world. Instead they talk about the democratic world, which is very similar to the democratic socialist world of the Soviet Union.
In reality, most people are not that fussy about democracy, as long as they are free to go about their business unhindered either by hoodlums or the government. Such is the sentiment that has led to the growth of representative institutions and the rule of law - the desire for liberty.
The democratic mindset is entirely different. For the democrat we must all select a leader and then, all together now, do as the leader wishes.
And so, along with democracy we see the growth of patronage and bureaucracy, of ideological conformity, of police deciding who can say and what can be said, of schools teaching propaganda to the young, the thoughts and values of independence mocked and sidelined. State officials, of whom there are millions, may be sacked for displaying the wrong faith or for speaking injudicious words. People languish in jail for saying 'offensive' things. Sticks and stones may break your bones if your words hurt me - so say the Politically Correct.
As thought crime is clamped down upon and the minutiae of daily life is regulated, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, corruption is institutionalised, favours are exchanged, networks of influence are established and dissent is silenced. Theft by those in power is all around us, in the form of salaries for sitting on quangos or fake charities or governmental expense accounts. They leech on us, and to do this they have to remove our freedoms while they use their low interest rates to sink us into debt and transfer our wealth into their bank accounts.
Democracy has no way of putting right the corruption or the freedom deficit, because democracy is the problem. Only through representation and autonomy can we regain our freedoms.
In reality, if we accept government at all, we must regard it as a necessary evil. Unfortunately, democracy sees government as a necessary good, that people cannot live unless directed from above. Democracy means hierarchy, passivity, obedience, theft, the very opposite of freedom.