Osho On Democracy

[Butters]

Can't argue with it. I mean doesn't this perfectly describe our time now?

Remember: Trump, Netanjahoo, Putin, Erdogan, all democratically elected.

 

Edited Sunday at 08:00 PM by Butters

[enchanted]

Lol Yes great clip. 

But what about countries without democracy? how are their leaders? Some of them are very bad too.

China is one example of a country without democracy that is actually doing quite well. Crime, poverty, homelessness, "home ownership" are better than most democratic nations. 

Their Internet isn't controlled by billionaires looking to make a buck. It's controlled by the government looking to better it's people. No lie. 

Edited Sunday at 09:24 PM by enchanted

[Butters]

@enchanted fair point, China remains such a mystery to me. On the one hand they're evolving so fast while at the same time remaining this dictatorship where you cannot criticize the government, although I believe it's not as bad as most other authoritarian regimes. The central government also needs to keep a really high approval rating afaik so it's not truly a dictatorship.

It's kinda brilliant how Beijing has been playing 4D chess for decades, but would I wanna live there? I still prefer Western democracy.

It's the media that influences people to have such dumb opinions and that is bad for democracy. The loudest most viral monkey gets the most votes. 

[enchanted]

39 minutes ago, Butters said:

 this dictatorship where you cannot criticize the government, 

True. Criticism of the government by it's citizens is often misguided, comes from ignorance, and does more harm to society than good. But I'll grant it that citizens should have the right to criticize a bad government, and this is something that isn't publically allowed in China. 

39 minutes ago, Butters said:

It's kinda brilliant how Beijing has been playing 4D chess for decades, 

They are playing 5D lol. 

39 minutes ago, Butters said:

,but would I wanna live there? I still prefer Western democracy.

I tend to agree but that could be because we were born in the West. Polls suggest Chinese people prefer to live in China and why wouldn't they? China has cheaper cars and houses and food, higher home ownership, better and cheaper education, much better health care, Lower crime across the board. And tech billionaires don't control the media and the narrative. The only thing the Chinese government asks it's citizens is to be much less involved in politics.

Edited Monday at 07:51 AM by enchanted

[BlueOak]

A few things lacking in his awareness.

One he is part of the people

Two I am better than you so I should have more say.
Or
Your view of reality and life I consider lesser, so therefore you shouldn't vote in the collective I live in.

I don't doubt I could look at parts of his life and call them retarded.

He fundamentally does not understand democracy is the people it represents, that is the point of it, and he is part of them

[BlueOak]

The challenges of now don't really change with more intelligence in the ruling elite.
The people are still going to exist.

If you mean the challenges geopolitically, not really. People are usually engineered to be as the governing forces want them to be, or at least 30% of them, and enough to keep them in power.

Edited Monday at 12:11 PM by BlueOak

[Butters]

18 hours ago, BlueOak said:

He fundamentally does not understand democracy is the people it represents, that is the point of it, and he is part of them

But that's not how it works in practice. You really think Trump represents the American people? He's just a grifter who got elected by being in the media constantly and playing on emotions, not because of his fantastic competence as a politician to represent the people. 

[Elliott]

Democracy is how the human race evolves though, even through mistakes like Trump people like some conservatives that supported him have learned from this lesson. Having democracy does not solve everything on day one, humans are in an adolescent stage but adolescents learn primarily through experience; good and bad ones.

Another point, a dictator would be a dictator out of the "retarded people" still a "retard", retarded democracy versus retarded dictatorships. Dictatorships can have an indirect growth impact when it foments a revolution against the dictatorship, but in general it infantilizes and to stay on point, retards the people. Democracy allows experimentation which promotes real growth for humanity and individuals. But yes, the human race is still retarded.

Edited 5 hours ago by Elliott

[Butters]

@Elliott awesome insight. However, a fully stage orange+ 'dictatorship' seems to be possible when you study Singapore. So far that experiment has gone well but who knows how it will pan out. Same for China of course.

Edited 15 hours ago by Butters

[Elliott]

3 hours ago, Butters said:

@Elliott awesome insight. However, a fully stage orange+ 'dictatorship' seems to be possible when you study Singapore. So far that experiment has gone well but who knows how it will pan out. Same for China of course.

What do you believe China and Singapore are doing that's uniquely different than generally just following the United States lead in almost everything?

[BlueOak]

On 16/06/2026 at 8:10 AM, Butters said:

But that's not how it works in practice. You really think Trump represents the American people? He's just a grifter who got elected by being in the media constantly and playing on emotions, not because of his fantastic competence as a politician to represent the people. 

If we are treating it as a whole. When he was elected, Trump represented part of the American Country. The country being businesses, influencers outside and inside, media companies, geopolitics, institutions, social pressures, natural environmental factors, trends, fears, biases, goals, values etc. 

However osho spoke about the people only, which is an even less detailed constructed model of democracy than the question you've just given me.

Edited 5 hours ago by BlueOak

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

To be honest, I don't think this whole "people are stupid, therefore democracy sucks" trope is valid anymore, at least not for me. Very smartass, reddity thing to claim. Stupidity when it comes to governing a society, is just your subjective point of view, and you are also just a mere human. Pretending like you are above this all, for me is foolish

[Joseph Maynor]

The heart of politics is you need more than one to agree on something.  That is the social contract.