Why Democracies are Stuck — The Big Man Problem
Like Stories of Old describes a concept for Jedi that I will borrow here for the nation — Schrödinger’s America. America is stuck between two competing visions:
- America is driven by top down leadership that renews itself by escaping the trap of aristocratic bloodlines
- America is driven by a free and educated populace wielding democracy with leaders respecting the rule of law
This unresolved duality applies to America’s history where in the one version founding fathers, politicians like FDR, and business tycoons created the America we know. In the other version the American revolution was led by a very aware American people, the New Deal by “The Populist Contribution” from Americans educated by the Great Depression, and scientists and engineers instead of business tycoons.
Schrödinger’s America is stuck because in the one narrative we have to focus on getting the right big men into power and in the other we have to try harder to educate America or idly wait for a disaster that will do it for us.
In the one America, Elon Musk greatly contributed to clean energy before going crazy and and in the other Musk was always an authoritarian, rich kid ass and clean energy was driven by consumer demand and government subsidy and anyway trains would be better.
In the one America, giant deep state bureaucracies are holding everything together until challenged by populism and in the other these bureaucracies are corrupt and only held accountable so long as average citizens pay attention.
In the one America, billionaires can be trusted to control the government and in the other that’s completely nuts. In the one America, governance just requires following mind numbingly simple political mantras and in the other governance is hard and everyone has to chip in by understanding what is happening.
In the one America the Jedi battling evil for us makes sense, and in the other nothing is that simple.
The lack of a middle ground in these visions was expressed well in Sophocles Antigone 2500 years ago the Star Wars father son pair:
Creon: So I should rule this country for someone other than myself?
Haemon: A place for one man alone is not a city.
Creon: A city belongs to its master. Isn’t that the rule?
Haemon: Then go be ruler of a desert, all alone. You’d do it well.
Yes in theory some wise big man can both listen to the people and also lead them, but in practice, absent pressure from the populace, there are enough Sith and Jedi who become Sith as to cause a Greek tragedy.
Even in business, which is usually much simpler than governance, the corporate idea of empowering big man X to solve problem Y is a perpetual failure. The businesses which are run that way only survive through near monopoly power.
In fact the Declaration of Independence details exactly what happens, what always eventually happens, with king like powers:
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
Oh and interestingly enough also:
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
In King George III’s speech in response to the Declaration:
I shall give Authority to certain Persons upon the Spot to grant general or particular Pardons and Indemnities, in such Manner, and to such Persons as they shall think fit; and to receive the Submission of any Province or Colony, which shall be disposed to return to its Allegiance.
As the power to pardon is very important to any despot — the law being only at their whims and not applying to anyone displaying loyalty.
But Schrödinger’s America was also part of our history from the start — see the Newburgh letter and a transcription of Col. Nicola’s writing here :
Some people have so connected the ideas of tyranny and monarchy as to find it very difficult to separate them, it may therefore be requisite to give the head of such a constitution as I propose, some title apparently more moderate, but if all other things were once adjusted I believe strong argument might be produced for admitting the title of king, which I conceive would be attended with some material advantages.
In response, George Washington, before reading a letter in support of congress to the unpaid, beleaguered officers, famously said:
Gentlemen, you will permit me to put on my spectacles, for I have not only grown gray but almost blind in service of my country.
This is Schrödinger’s leadership — you can have leaders that serve and suffer for others or warrior kings but not, if you observe the leader, both.
Democracies are stuck because the only way oligarchs can stay in power is to keep the cat both alive and dead.
If oligarchs allow America to collapse to the Chinese and Russian vision of “America is driven by top down leadership that renews itself by escaping the trap of aristocratic bloodlines”, then they leave the “first world” behind and risk being deposed as soon as they don’t show sufficient loyalty to the top of the hierarchy.
Of course if oligarchs allow, “America is driven by a free and educated populace wielding democracy with leaders respecting the rule of law” then they risk “new deal” obscurity.
This is the same duality that slave owning founders required. The same ambiguity that even Franklin D. Roosevelt needed when crafting the new deal. Roosevelt was president in 1941 while Walt Disney was actively suppressing unions.
This is the same duality that makes it seem there are two Elon Musk. Elon is forced to be both for and against immigration. He’s forced to endorse electric cars and also support candidates that oppose them.
Elon needs a fascist president to avoid paying taxes but not one as strong as Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping. For instance one that is 78 years old instead of 72 or 71 and who was raised a rich brat like Musk instead of former KGB or someone who lived in a cave for seven years during the cultural revolution.
For the oligarchy America is a Goldilocks problem with no middle bowl of porridge. Instead one must unsatisfying alternate between mush that is too hot and mush that is too cold.
The oligarchy has a long term plan for America that involves paying off entire schools of economics to be Milt Friedman like stooges while simultaneously decrying universities to be radically liberal. That involves encouraging women, immigrants, and non-whites into the workplace while simultaneously keeping them out of upper management. That endorses both radical globalization, host mush, and radical tariffs, cold mush.
The oligarchy is a mass of contradictions that cause Schrödinger’s America to stay unobserved in the box. They claim meritocracy and also fully endorse nepotism.
They want to keep everything the same and are also just fine with ever more frequent climate change induced disasters. They support family values and also actively create a world with fewer and fewer children.
They endorse Christianity though they are atheist. They want to live forever but also capitulate to someone who has frozen NIH grants.
They supposedly want reduced government but simultaneously need an enlarged government for physical property rights, intellectual property rights, debt bondage, strong currencies, bailouts, and a whole host of other constructs and infrastructure.
Nor do you have to be a billionaire to be hit by these contradictions. At the time of suggesting a royal title, Col. Nicola was leader of the “Invalid Corps,” a thousand man group proposed by Nicola that were unfit for combat but still able to perform other military duties.
In Antigone Sophocles has characters complaining of the evil to which money leads. However much of Trump’s support came from close to retired, older, financially stable Americans with no monetary incentive to rock the boat.
These older supporters are also very unlikely to be swayed by any propaganda they weren’t predisposed to believe. What’s in it for them to be part of a coalition keeping the specter of American dictatorship alive?
These older Americans also need the cat both alive and dead. They want the resources they have accrued over a lifetime, but also the America of their youth. They want a geriatric president who somehow also moves mountains.
They don’t want to pay taxes, but also to avail themselves of health care etc. that is heavily subsidized. And they control the vote and are willing to alternate between parties to achieve the stasis they desire:
Middle-aged voters were especially influential in tilting the election to Trump. A commanding 56 percent of voters ages 50–64 cast ballots for Trump, with 43 percent voting for Harris, exit polls show. The candidates were tied at 49 percent among voters 65 and older. The two age groups together comprise well over half of the national electorate, meaning they provided the critical difference for the returning president-elect.
In short the rulers of America, oligarchs and the old, like Creon see no reason to rule this country for someone other than themselves. They are short timers with no intention of allowing a progress they won’t live to see.
Democracy being stuck suits oligarchs and the old fine as they want the superposition state of top down leadership that only listens to them.