2d ago

Parenti on Democracy

8 comments

I'm not sure one can use ancient Greece as an exampe of democracy not being tied to wealth.
- Parenti's grasp of antiquity is atrocious, honestly.
  Not to mention his modern genocide apologia.
- he addresses that in the speech, actually. In many ways it was flawed; slavery, excluding women, etc. However in other ways it was superior as a substantive democracy

I'm not sure if it's wealth alone or just monopolies on power and influence achieved one way or another. The dark ages of many european nations were branded by churches' influence over monarchs' own decisions. They had at some point and in some places more real estate than anyone else, and usually supported wars for gains, but they gained their own power by monopolizing the irrational in commoners and printing god's approval or forgiveness as they claimed they can do so. I'm not exactly well versed in the topic, but as a commoner myself I see the current concept of 'wealth' complicated by math, stonks and such as some sort of the same religious bullshit, but somehow more excusable in our age and time.
- IMO wealth is simply power coupons. The more coupons you have, the more power you wield. I think you're right though, and is a good example of how class struggle has changed over the centuries.

Protect themselves from the power of wealth
How's that going?
- the same way it's been going for millennia: effective until the ruling class figures out how to subvert it.
  
  ... when was it effective?

8 comments