DEMOCRACY IS FUNDAMENTALLY A COLLECTIVE COGNITION SYSTEM—A CIVILIZATION-SCALE METHOD FOR ERROR CORRECTION THROUGH PUBLIC CONTRADICTION
Abstract: Democracy is fundamentally misunderstood by authoritarian leaders such as Xi Jinping, who equate political strength with centralized speed and consensus.
Democracy’s greatest power lies not in unanimity, but in organized disagreement, open debate, and collective self-correction. Drawing from ancient Greek concepts such as parrhesia (fearless truth-telling) and isegoria (equal right to speak), the text presents democracy as a “mental creation machine” capable of producing better long-term decisions than autocracy.
The creativity and resilience of Greco-Roman democratic traditions and institutions was so great that it survived the collapse of the Roman State, and bouts of religious-plutocratic terror.
In contrast, the one-man rule turns out to be fragile. Superior culture and intelligence emerge from the many rather than from the One.
Troubling historical parallels are found between Xi’s praise of authoritarian efficiency and arguments once used by Adolf Hitler to justify dictatorship.
The importance of Roman legal principles such as isonomia—equality before the law— are the foundations of modern democratic civilization, including present day China.
The global struggle between democracy and autocracy as a battle between distributed intelligence and centralized power. Truly it is a battle between two instincts: the fascist instinct (becoming one, a single mind for combat) and the will to greater intelligence (main engine of human creation in the last seven million years).
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Introduction: Chinese President Xi thinks democracy has to do with “CONSENSUS”. Actually it’s the opposite. Shame on all those in the West, who failed to explain that to the world.
The big difference between China and the West, and the reason why most contributions to civilization came from the Indo-Irano-Orientalo-European West is that the two most important Greco-Roman states were DEMOCRACIES… Before that the first transnational empires in the Middle of Earth’s continents, such as the Akkadian empire (2350 BCE) already invented the concept of universal LAW.
And in that gigantic Indo-Irano-Orientalo-European West there was an immense diversity of interacting governments, trading goods and ideas, the complete opposite of one-man rule.
To some extent, China, with its 100 or so languages and nations reproduced diversity, hence its many contributions. But it was in a smaller realm. Because of the sea, there was trade in the West from Britain to South East Asia…
Democracy was made possible by the armed middle class the Hoplites, a system initialized by the Greek city-state of Argos, military superior to aristocraties.
So democracy wins wars more readily (consider Ukraine and Putin).
Xi said that democracies “cannot be sustained in the 21st century” because they require national consensus. (In other news, fire is hot and water is wet, and neither can be sustained in the 21st century…)
Xi said that democracies “cannot be sustained because they require national consensus. “It’s hard to get consensus, therefore they can’t keep up with an autocracy, one-man rule,” Mr. Biden was told by Xi. Xi talked as if he knew what democracy was, or what a debate was. But to know what democracy is, and what a debate is, one has to take part in many debates. Considering that Mr. Xi lived in dictatorship all his life, and considering the way he wants to be revered, it’s unlikely he could take part in either democracy or debate.
Xi does not understand, and does not seem to even have the slightest inkling, that the MAIN FUNCTION OF A DEMOCRACY IS TO GET IT MORE RIGHT, MOST OF THE TIME, THAN ANY OTHER ALTERNATIVE. And this is the fruit of consensus. Yes, it takes time to get it right. One-man rule will get it wrong much more frequently than democracy, because culture is the fruit of the many, not the concoction of one.
“Democracy” is the Demos-Power. Autocracy means autokratēs self-power, “ruling by oneself,” Mr. Xi apparently believes that he is so incredibly strong, he is stronger than 1.4 billion Chinese, 350 million US citizens, etc.
Democracy was so powerful and creative in the ancient Greco-Roman world because of the way it was enacted: through debate. Greeks required open debate, unafraid, and the access of all to the agora, isegoria, the right to address all, unafraid (parrhesia). More exactly, parrhesia was not only freedom of speech, but the obligation to speak the truth for the common good, even at personal risk.
Thus democracy was the most creative part of the Greco-Roman world, a mental creation machine.
To believe that one man can replace hundreds of millions of persons debating is beyond naive. It is world-dangerous.
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Folks, there’s an ONGOING BATTLE IN THE WORLD BETWEEN AUTOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY.
Xi Jinping, the leader of China, [with] whom I’ve talked—I’ve spent more time with [him] than [with] any other world leader—over 78 hours— either in person or on the telephone with him. And the fact of the matter is, he just is STRAIGHTFORWARD ABOUT IT. He says that democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century. Not a joke. They cannot be sustained, because things are moving so rapidly, democracies require consensus, and it’s hard to get consensus, therefore they CAN’T KEEP UP WITH AN AUTOCRACY, ONE-MAN RULE. But that’s not going to be the case. If that happens, the whole world changes. “
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HITLER USED THE EXACT SAME ARGUMENT To Justify His Own Dictatorship:
Warning: I am not trying to suggest that Xi IS Hitler. So far, he is not. (But of course Hitler did not start by being Hitler!) Xi is infinitely better educated than Hitler (and also not a racist).
I am just pointing out that the argument that one-man rule is speedy because consensus is slow, was made, ad nauseam, by Hitler. Of course President Xi is busy and could not read, as yours truly thousands of pages of the German tyrant. I am just trying to help him: it would be best for the guy who wants his country on the Moon to not repeat Adolf, as if one were an unimaginative parrot…
Hermann Rauschning’s book, (Hitler Speaks (UK) or The Voice of Destruction (US)), published in 1939.records a conversation —from 1934— where Hitler discusses his decision to sign the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact (less than a year after arriving to power). Hitler explains that his supporters were shocked by the “U-turn” because attacking Poland was nearly the main object of the Nazi propaganda (to recover what the Nazis viewed as German land).
Hitler boasts that a great leader must be able to change direction instantly, like a ship or a motorcar. Hitler would have said:
“I am willing to sign anything. I will sign any paper. It will not prevent me from doing what I think best… Why should I not make a treaty in good faith today and break it tomorrow if the interests of the German people require it?”
Regarding the Polish treaty specifically, Hitler bragged about performing a “volte-face” and that no democracy could be so prompt. This is the argument Xi reproduces.
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China has been invaded and occupied many times in the last two millenia, when, arguably Europe was not (there were invasions during the fall of the Roman State, but the Imperium Francorum, the official successor, reestablished full governance quickly; the Franks in 507 CE crushed the Goths, something no prior Roman government had ever done…).
This resistance to invasion of Europe was caused by the persistence of MORE DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES IN EUROPE, thanks to Roman law… And Roman methods of governance, for example Charlemagne’s Prime Minister, Alcuin, was a superlative philosopher from England. In theory, and for seven centuries, Franco-Roman emperors were elected…
The argument is not that Europe was democratic, just that it was much more democratic: isonomia was the official meta-law, no “son of Heaven” there (this change after nationalism took over…).
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China suffered from the Great Leap Forward (courtesy of Mao) and the Cultural Revolution (courtesy “Gang of Four”). These were typical expressions of the rule of the few. Few-Rule, oli-garchy killed millions in China.
- The Great Leap Forward was a state-driven campaign led by Mao’s regime, and it produced a famine with about 20 million deaths.
- The Cultural Revolution was launched by Mao and unleashed violent political chaos; one estimate places deaths at about 1.5 to 1.6 million
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China is a gigantic country with enormous resources. Taiwan is an island from the first chain of Islands, like the Philippines or Japan. Obsessing about Taiwan is not just silly, but could indicate a mental imbalance. Obsessing about the South China sea is even worse. Yes, the north of the South China sea is Chinese, but the rest is not.
China has few friends, whereas the Empire Of Democracy is a network of relationships, often parental (like the US born of France and Britain… And much of the rest of Europe, from Scandinavia to Ireland, Spain, Germany, Italy, even Russia… South America is the child of Iberia, etc. Africa and the Middle East have been in often very close, and generally fruitful, not to say affectionate, entanglements for more than 10,000 years…
Sparta had many more friends than China has. Sparta had actually freed Athens less than a century earlier, from one-man rule… And thus Sparta created Athenian democracy in the version it confronted later…
Demos-kratia rests in part on Republican Democratic LAW. That Roman Republican law had survived the fall of the Roman State, and by the Sixth Century was refurbished in Constantinople and immediately applied in that renovated form by the Franks in Europe. The Imperium Francorum was invested with Roman Imperial power.
Roman Law rested on ISONOMIA, equality of all in front of the law as Augusta Galla Placidia, the most important Roman leader of the Fifth Century pointed out repeatedly.
China defines itself as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. The Empire Of Democracy also has socialism… But with Roman Democratic characteristics, as exhibited by the law (and also institutions launched in Rome like the Anona, the free distributions of basic goods…
One man can boast of his rule, but he is just one man. Look at pitiful Putin… One man is just one man, he can be quick all he wants, but he will never be as powerful, smart and wise than We The People.
Patrice Ayme
Rome was a (direct) DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC. China never grew indigenuously anything equivalent until the Twentieth Century… Right now what we have in the West with few partial exception (Suisse??? CA????) are Oligarchic Representative pseudo-Democratic Republics…. And China? Well, thanks to Marx and the French PCF, we have a “Marxist” regime…. A dictatorship…
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