The Threats to Democracy in the American Social Imagination...

 

 

In 1984, John Brigham wrote a book called, "Civil Liberties and American Democracy." In chapter 7, Brigham writes about threats to American democracy. He states that threats to democracy in America appear to be from three sectors: the elites, the people and the experts. It is so worthwhile to read that instead of completely summarizing, short excerpts will be used.

The first threat comes from the top - elites. Who are they? They are the power elite as C.Wright Mills wrote in 1956. They are people who occupy the higher tiers of society because they have either money or power or prestige or they have all three.  Brigham points to them first as they are truly the ones who hold the balance of economic and military power. Among themselves they compete for more money, power and prestige which effect everyone else.

There is no open competition in this scenario (names and places at the top may change but the game remains) and because of that there is an ever constant threat to democracy as they feel that their established order is under threat. Thus, Brigham asserts that we should always be alert to the usurpation of state power, whether it is by unaccountable private interest or under the justification of military emergency.

The second threat comes from the people. Really? Yes, really. Largely because, there is no truth in the masses as Kierkegaard noted. Such a threat comes from those who have no share in the top and what goes on up there. They lack information from the top and form groups of like mindedness because of that. Hence, there is no truth in the masses... for they are a mixed batch these days.

This kind of threat from the bottom should be taken seriously. It is out of alienation from the top, a feeling of hopeless and helplessness. This feeling creates the illusion (real or not) that there is something bigger and menacing that is out to get the little guy, something that wants to take his job, his family, his faith and his life; and unless he/she goes along to get along he/she is doomed.

The third threat comes from experts. Who are they? In America, Brigham firstly points out lawyers and even judges mostly influenced by elites and politicians and or including other kinds of experts: university administrators, think tank groups, foundation/association/org lobbyists, and even today- journalists that are paid to pull strings for the all the others just named.  Experts can be 'made people'; made by the elites who want to keep their status and or position of power and thus control the people with their so called 'expertise'.

Today, we can observe these three threats underway, undermining American democracy. And, a kind of internal shaking is being felt nationwide and worldwide. Is America a democracy for the people and by the people? It should never be doubted lest America decays and disappears into the history pages. That rhetoric is being used but with a new twist. The experts and elites who control politicians and lets include the military industrial who is in bed with all three. They are revising the United States of America. They are changing who/what (USA) America is, who the people really are. They use political rhetoric (fighting words) to reshape what life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness means... what it means to them.

I think we can safely say... that's what is before us in the theater of the social imagination.