It's pretty evident that the universal suffrage of modern democracy has turned out to be a bad idea. It ends up devouring the systems and states which birthed it. There is no real freedom when a simple majority can vote for expropriation of property or rights. The state becomes the facilitator of the destruction of freedom rather than freedom's defender. In real terms, there is no ownership or liberty when half your countrymen want what you process. Universal suffrage is the tool they can wield to take what they want. It's simple and legal. Bill of Rights? Ha! A simple judge's decision can make that go away if the political will is behind it. We haven't abided by the Constitution since universal suffrage became a thing a century ago.

In the end, democracy becomes the tyranny of the majority.

That. But. Democracy is the worst system of governance except for every other that's been tried.

Another theses that I'd like to pursue One Day(tm) is that no system of governance will work unless there exists in the populace a certain DNA: Hard to define, but it clearly existed on the east coast of North America ca. 1776 -- attributes being a largely God-fearing and moral population with highly and broadly educated, respected leaders. They wrote a document that worked until, gradually, we became Something Else(tm). I'm not convinced that we can hold on much longer, either. Sorry about Chile and Venezuela and, frankly everywhere else; at the end of the day, they must find their own way. We no longer have anything to offer.

Life. Liberty. And Property. Not the pursuit of happiness.

Happiness is always found within. But everyone looks outside for it.

Glenn Beck did a great investigation of the Soros lead "Civil Society 2.0" which involves his NGO supposedly working to train people for I guess what we all now call a community organizer type thing. It sounds harmless, but it actually trains them to take advantage of situations to lead "spontaneous protests" in countries all around the world. Chile was one country mentioned.

Soros profits from chaos, thus does his level best to sow it wherever he does business. He is an evil man.

agreed

I don't agree with the author's pessimistic view of Chile. I spent most of February in Chile, including five days in Santiago. I've also been traveling in Latin America for over 50 years. The country was very quiet with no visible signs of unrest. One of the tells that things are ok in a country is the number of police and military on the streets. I saw almost no police or military anywhere in the country. I also heard no under the breath grumbling about conditions in the country, and I speak a lot of Spanish.

I agree. I think it's been a long time since protestors anywhere were actually protesting "for more democracy". That's just the spin they put on it. They seem to be cut from the same fabric of agitators and wealth-redistributors all over the world. The media loves to paint them in favorable colors, but who actually speaks for a mob? And does the mob really represent "the people"? We hear plenty of cases of "protestors in the streets" which are "the voice of the people demanding more democracy", but they cannot speak for all the people. Just because you get 10,000 youthful rioters with signs in the street in an "authoritarian" nation doesn't mean that MOST people aren't satisfied. If we took the presence of protestors in the streets to be "the people are dissatisfied with the system" and assumed that the random protestors interviewed were "speaking for the people", it would seem that the US is a nation of socialist leftists ruled by a tiny minority of rich people exploiting them. But no one asks the millions of people who AREN'T in the streets protesting. It's rare to find people willing to stand up and demonstrate in FAVOR of a government. And when the do they are dismissed as "forced demonstrators", not "the real people". Even in cases where they are dissatisfied, it would appear that more conservative people just aren't inclined to make fools of themselves in the streets. This is the area of wild eyed youth (and those who think of themselves as youth), who as we know, tend to be leftists. Until they grow older and most of them realize they were foolish. Thus you cannot rely on protests to tell you much of....well, anything.

Why would the plutocracy endorse left policies❓‼️🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪😘😘😘

Although the protests appear to have ended, this is still a great article because it reminds us that for some strange reason, Latin America always brings its monsters back to life and Chile is, at the same time, the rare exception of seriousness and the best example of radicalism. To those interested, please read my post The Allende Myth; https://dorta.com/?p=308

When watching a few Chilean movies, like "No" and "Neruda", they reminded us the history repeated exactly...Some conversations are insanely reflected the current movements, although they were decades apart. In Neruda, the woman party member kissed him, ad asked:"When communism arrives, will we all equal to you? Or equal to me?' Neruda said "Equal to me, eating in the bed, and fornicating in the kitchen". Lol. Yes equal to whom? But we also see so many conflicts between the militants and civilians, which are almost not funny...decades apart, different generations of young people think they are doing some new revolutions. In a way, they are. In a way, they are not, until they find a better balance and clear model.

Hmm

as it should be

This is the problem of too much democracy. Two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner. Most of human history was 10% or less of the population running things based on fear and death. Things will NEVER BE EQUAL. It is impossible as what can be defined as equal is as variable as humanity itself.

We have our own youths. Bernie Bro's, who are not content to sit in their air conditioned basements eating cheeto's and play video games till they are 40. Sometimes you have to have to impell order. Waiting too long creates a situation where the force required becomes very great indeed.

People need a cause to get up in the morning. We used to have religion compelling us to love our neighbors and help them out. We have all decided that religion is bad. But have not replaced it with enough useful things.

The point being that no level of material comfort is enough to pacify the masses. They always want MORE. Not realizing all they NEED is already inside them.

Don't worry. Diversity is our strength. Leftists tell us so every day.

Are you f*cking kidding me? There are people who will believe any part of this bullsh*t ugly diatribe, and I just wonder howr how your skankass sleeps at night. Or are you simply a sociopath? I know you don't actually believe any of the drivel you've written here. You kne what? These are very real, passionate, strong and righteous people, finally taking up a revolution against a morally empty power structure. And the reason MOST of their society regularly partakes despite grievous civil rights violations and horrific violence and death by the crooked military cops, is because they have nothing left to lose. They have everything to be proud of.as opposed to y.

I always appreciate a calm, dispassionate, reasoned response.

Obama voter.

Your comment is not persuasive in any way. Ad hominem attacks don't make a case. If there is some aspect of the situation in Chile that you can reveal this is a good opportunity. There usually are two sides to an issue. So have at it and provide some specifics. Most people come here for information.

Viva Pinochet!

Right, they will be much better off when they have become more like Venezuela.

Mercer is an immigrant from South Africa. She saw what happened there. She's the opposite of a sociopath.

I didn't know anything about troubles in Chile. I trust Mercer to present facts and logical conclusions starting from those facts.

And commenter "505badgolfer" above disagrees with some of Mercer's take but seems to be reporting that the Chilean population isn't restive at all.

nut.

There is nothing on earth quite so stupid as a Latin American extreme leftist, like the idiots protesting in Chile. They are low IQ, lazy, dishonest, envious, jealous of their betters, and violence-prone. They belong in cages.

More hyperbolic nonsense and moral posturing from a leftist, based on nothing but innuendo and cherry-picked anecdotes. These people are filled with self loathing, but redirect it outward in endless mindless rage.