Since the midterm elections about a week ago in the US, I have been thinking of funambulism, the art of tightrope walking. Now bear with me, I’ll explain.
You can argue till you are blue in the face but a representative democracy is really the fairest kind of government there is. It is far from being perfect and making it work and keeping it going is tough, however, it beats autocracy any day.
Sure, some autocratic-run nations are bucking the trend and achieving good standards of living for their people. However, the human can never be oppressed forever. Sooner or later, the wish for freedom erupts in ugly ways.
With that said, representative democracy has its challenges too and sometimes, I compare its practice to doing a walk on a tightrope spanned between two skyscrapers. One needs concentration discipline and balance. One small slip and it is plunge down into the depths of anarchy where fascist, autocrats and dictators lurk.
If one watches a funambulist as they walk across a tightrope, one notices that they hold a long bar during the walk. This bar, known as a balancing bar, is quite important for the art.
It does three things:
– it reduces the rotational torque of the funambulist, so he or she does not tilt off the rope;
– it lowers the center of gravity, giving the walker more stability on the rope, and
– by allowing the walker to shift the bar to one side or the other, helps with balance.
Thus we see how important the balancing bar is.
If I compare practicing representative democracy with tightrope walking, what in this system is comparable to the balancing bar? If the system itself, embodied in the leaders, is walking the tightrope, then elections and the people’s ability to vote form the balancing bar.
Think about it.
The votes of the people can move the nation to the left or the right. The votes of the people can provide leadership that stabilizes the country or leadership that causes it to tilt off the rope.
The votes of the people are what the leadership needs to stay on that tightrope. Without them, the leadership falls off and another takes his place.
There is a big difference however in the control a tightrope walker who has over the balancing bar versus the control a leader has over the balance the vote provides in a representative democracy.
Whereas the funambulist totally controls the bar and thus its effect on his walk, a leader only influences the electorate by his actions and words. If they like what they see and hear and appreciate how he wields the power of the balancing bar they have handed him, they give him control to make the changes necessary to keep the walk going.
If they are displeased with him, he notices a gradual or sometimes even sudden shift of the bar into other hands.
Thus one sees how potent the ability to vote is. Each voter has the ability to closely affect how a nation is ruled in a representative democracy. Sure, one can lament the role of money and corporations. One can also lament the slow speed at which change occurs. To the first, I’ll say, ultimately the will of the people comes through. To the second, do remember the analogy – representative democracy is like tightrope walking! Speed is an enemy during this feat.
It is no wonder that the first thing an autocrat, dictator or fascist does on attaining power is to ban elections. It shows you the power inherent in the will of the people.
No matter where you are in the world if you ever have the opportunity to vote, do so. It is a power that one never wants to give up, then like the balancing bar, it keeps a representative democracy on the rope and accountable to the people.