Is Modern Democracy Really Democratic?

This is a question that often vexes me. The very concept of modern democracy as a “rule of the people” would require that “the people” be well educated and well informed about what goes on in the world and what goes on about their elected leaders. Yet, this is not so.

Here’s the point that compromises most modern democracies: DISINFORMATION. There are so many lies and half-truths going around about situations and about world leaders that it is utterly confusing to “the people”. We “the people” are baffled by an inexorable daily flow of conflicting news and contradictory public affirmations. We are bombarded by lies and half-truths mingled cunningly with what’s real and proven fact.

When it is not about the lies that are publicized all around us by a media that displays little concern for the veracity of the bombastic material they bring to the public, it is about the secrecy that is kept on certain public circles. National security and the safeguarding of individual politician’s rights have more often than not signified that “the people” must be kept ignorant of important facts.

How can we call ourselves democratic when the ability of “the people” to make an educated choice is so compromised by disinformation and secrecy that we are faced with nothing but lies and half-truths upon which to base our decisions?

We will only have TRUE DEMOCRACY on the day that “the people” are given all the facts by transparent public institutions and the REAL power to format and convey an opinion.