For some time now I have been thinking about what they said in 1991, following the events that dissolved that weird thing called U.S.S.R. Without exceptions the press was editorializing the whole thing as a victory: "Communism has died, long live to Capitalism!". Could have been a perfect headline for a news summary those days. While writing this I am realizing how always hated the way some people mix the words Capitalism and Democracy. It is like giving credit to the former by association to the later, undoubtedly more respectable.
Going back twenty years ago, I was a young man then, but not so young as not to care about what was taking place in front of my eyes. I recall me thinking: first the wall, now this, and broadcasted all over the world on live feed! Happy then to see that monster disappear, still happy now with the perspective of time and some white hair (not much actually) inhabiting my head. Everybody thought that was the beginning of a new era where people could mind their own business and stop worrying about the bomb or the Evil Empire (Reagan dixit).
But what do you expect to happen to Batman if there is nobody out there defying his supremacy and keeping him in shape? Yes, of course, Russia was still there and China, no doubt about it, is here now. But lacking new ideas to confront the so called Capitalism concept, they have just embraced they own wicked version of it and are more worried on the pursuit of their Eldorado than entering a discussion on where we all, and by that I mean the World, are heading. As a result we have a big fat guy with his underwear over the trousers sitting in our living room and drinking our beer while the World...well...
So the small guys took over long ago. "Don't worry, have a rest, from now on we can manage on the details". They are smart, this people. They use to work at places like Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch and believe it or not, still do, same place, same desk, just a different name on the door. They have mastered the ability to use the details of the law to betray the spirit of the law. They refer to it as Financial Engineering and for that they should be awarded because it is not small achievement to make things like putting some junk on a pretty box, label it and make everybody buy with the least clue of what was in the box. While Batman was watching the game the men with the fancy suits changed the operating system but kept the name and nobody noticed...or at least nobody took the time to explain the common citizens what was going on with their beloved Democracy.
The Wikipedia says: "Democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives." I do believe this is the best way for us, human beings, to live together protecting our children against whatever is out there. On the other hand it stipulates the following: "Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned and operated for profit, usually in competitive markets." This may not sound strange at all because is a concept we are utterly used to. Nothing more and nothing less than the law of the jungle. Precisely what mankind has tried to avoid for the last thousands of years. The victory of the strongest to ensure a better ADN for the next generation.
Let's think it over. If a certain people (or country) are doomed for starvation it cannot be called Democracy even though they have non tampered electoral processes because they didn't choose such fate and still there it is. The problem is citizens on the so-called first/rich world, not being asked whether they prefer a new highway or food for a kid in who knows what poor country. As rich as we are, so eager for cool phones and new ways to read a book, when the question is presented in the correct way I don't think anybody would hesitate on the answer.
But that easy-to-make polling proposal, simple as might look, hides a more deep analysis of today's acknowledge of the Democracy concept. The idea that in nowadays globalized world it could work for only some of us. When we speak of a person no one says he or she is a good person because so far he has been nice to you. A criminal is a criminal no matter how fair treats us and so is a corporation, no matter whether it complies with the laws of one country if it uses unfair countries with unfair laws to make the things it sells to you. They will argue that they respect the law in every country they have presence but it is again that imaginative interpretation of the letter to betray the spirit.
The sooner voters agree that borders and countries should only be seen for cultural purposes and human beings are essentially the same and should be treated the same the earlier politicians will understand the notion and defend it as our true representatives.
"Democracy should be a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives ... as far as those decisions do not cause pain and injustice anywhere else around the world either directly or by omission".
Meanwhile, Capitalism has not prevailed, simply we have just lost out.
