The Myth of Democracy

I thought that I learned bunches of new stuff from Sapiens, Prof Harari"s blockbuster about the political, religious and economic myths that helped us manage the many challenges to its survival our species faced over its 300,000-year existence. Harari asserts that Human Rights are not endemic to our, or to any species. A complete dissection of the human body will reveal no biological evidence of "Human Rights." This is because Rights are not Human, they are imaginary constructs, they are myths. Human Rights are not part of the physical "us," rather, they are figments of our collective imaginations. We cannot eat them, wear them, make them wash our cars; we just have them, why? because most Americans say we do, why? because our government told us so, how? by included Human Rights as part of a larger, more inclusive myth called "Democracy."

The Democracy myth was crafted, ratified and deployed by our Forefathers, then, to ensure its ongoing effectiveness, the myth was memorialized in a Bible/How-to manual called The Constitution of the United States, aka "The Granddaddy of all myths."

Democracy was sold to the citizens of our fledgling Country as a framework on how to
avoid the many pitfalls inherent in governing like the Brits. Turns out the myth was brilliant, insightful, and timeless; as relevant today as it was over two centuries ago. Benjamin Franklin, when asked if we had a Republic or a Monarchy, responded, "A Republic, if you can keep it."

Anyway, getting back to Human Rights, turns out Prof Harari's pearls of wisdom were somewhat predated by the late, great George Carlin. How I wish he was alive today, in part to make some sense of, or at least to direct some irreverent levity at today's all-out assault on the core tenants of our Democracy. Trump is trying to rewrite our sacred myth of Democracy to fit his own warped agenda. It's terrifying to imagine the permutations of possible narratives that his myth will espouse.

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