{"id":5688,"date":"2022-08-27T19:39:52","date_gmt":"2022-08-27T17:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/?p=5688"},"modified":"2022-08-27T19:39:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-27T17:39:52","slug":"noble-lie-democratic-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jonathan-cook.net\/blog\/2022-08-27\/noble-lie-democratic-west\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t be fooled by the \u2018noble lie\u2019 we live in a democratic West"},"content":{"rendered":"

Interviews with Volodymr Zelenskiy, Keir Starmer and Sam Harris strip away the illusion that we control our political system rather than it controls us<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As westerners, we are deeply attached to the idea not only that we live in democracies but that our way of life is economically, socially and morally superior to that of citizens in authoritarian states.<\/p>\n

Following on from these two assumptions is a further one \u2013 today held less consciously, for the obvious reason that it smacks a little too uncomfortably of racism \u2013 that we, as the people who fought for and created our democracies, are superior to those who did not.<\/p>\n

Our largely unexamined premise is that modernity and democracy grew out of the particular circumstances of a western Enlightenment. A combination of rationality, a superior culture and richer public sensibility provided the soil in which democracy, uniquely, could flourish.<\/p>\n

But what if that is nonsense? What if we have the story all wrong?<\/p>\n

It was, after all, an earlier idea of an enlightened, rational west that justified colonialism \u2013 resource theft from the \u201cdark continents\u201d across the seas. Industrial processes that were the flowering of that enlightenment made feasible, for example, the slave trade: the design and building of huge vessels to carry humans as cargo, the development of technologies to help those ships ply precise routes across vast oceans, and the production of ever more powerful weapons to subjugate \u201cinferior\u201d dark-skinned peoples.<\/p>\n

What if it was not a superior morality but callousness and self-interest that brought about democracy? We were simply first off the blocks in the race to strip the planet of its riches.<\/p>\n

What if the constant influx of wealth plundered from around the globe provided greater latitude for western rulers to gradually indulge the demands of their publics for a slightly bigger share of the spoils, a slightly bigger voice in how they were ruled? Western elites found it simpler to buy domestic consent rather than exact it by force.<\/p>\n

What if our democracies are built not on reason and virtue but greed and depravity?<\/p>\n

Consciences salved<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Okay, you concede. But that was then, not now. Once ordinary people managed, through struggle, to win the vote, the nature of western societies changed. Out of privilege, cruelty and inhumanity was born a new democratic spirit of fellow feeling and accountability, and an appreciation of the rule of law. Foreign policy became more compassionate, ready to champion the underdog, the oppressed. The west helped to found international institutions and a respect for international law.<\/p>\n

But what if that is a useful fiction too? What if democracy succeeded in the west chiefly because it proved an efficient way to manage the perceptions and expectations of the inhabitants of states that, through colonialism, had come to control and dominate the world\u2019s resources?<\/p>\n

We are told the story we need to hear. Unlike those living under authoritarian rule, we are implicated in the actions of our leaders. If they commit crimes, they do so in our name and with our implicit blessing. We must believe we are the Good Guys because to think otherwise \u2013 when we elect our rulers \u2013 would make us directly responsible for the suffering of others. In a world of depravity and selfishness, the right to vote does not so much liberate us as serve as an albatross on our necks.<\/p>\n

Western elites \u2013 more so than their authoritarian counterparts \u2013 have understood the need to salve the public\u2019s conscience, and the apparent willingness of the citizenry to collude in the deception. The narratives the public are exposed to are designed to avoid cognitive dissonance, a pricking of conscience, or a loss of faith.<\/p>\n

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My latest: Simple-minded media propaganda \u2013 like the claim that Russia\u2019s Putin is deranged \u2013 is precisely what brought us to the current crisis over Ukraine https:\/\/t.co\/QW0pbEq44G<\/a><\/p>\n

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) February 28, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n