Democracy

If by democracy we mean majority rule, then I can’t entirely say I believe in it. Even there, my objection to majority rule is to the rule part, not the majority part. If by democracy we mean “control from the bottom up” (and I think that is a correct understanding of democracy) then yes, I’m explicitly pro-democratic. Also, I’m not so doctrinaire in my anti-statism that I don’t perceive degrees of evil among statist forms. It is entirely without indecision that I consider democratic forms of government an unambiguously lesser evil than nondemocratic ones. I also have a decided preference for direct democracy over representative democracy. Also, I’m intensely anti-antidemocratic. The rightist slogan “America is (supposed to be) a republic, not a democracy” is something I hate with the heat of a thousand suns.

Some objections to direct democracy portray everyone voting on every issue as a burden. I should certainly hope that everyone could vote on every issue if they wanted to. In practice it would be good to be able to delegate some of those decisions, but not to have to do so.

Bootmakers voting on issues concerning bootmaking is good. Hopefully bootmakers can have the luxury of regarding each other as colleagues instead of competitors, but cooperation vs. competition is perhaps a separate question from democracy. I don’t know whether end consumers of boots are morally entitled to a say in the manufacture of boots, but I do think they’re entitled to detailed and accurate information about the supply chain. This is why collegiality is so important to me. Colleagues share knowledge with each other, and hopefully with the larger world, perhaps as published research. Competitors hoard trade secrets. One effect of that proprietary treatment of knowledge is a consumer public kept in the dark and pretty much flying blind when it comes to consumer decisions, and decisions in general.