Wreckers or Courageous?
In a recent blog, Santosh Desai says that democracies seem to be increasingly supporting actions that have a common theme: “These are all focused on dismantling existing systems without having a clear idea of what the consequences are, and what needs to be put in their place. Each dismantling is in response to an angry impulse for sweeping change and each is a product of the democratic process.” He was basing this on Trump, Brexit and demonetization. He worries that this isn’t just a “short-term and cyclic phenomenon”: “A new grammar of democracy has begun rooted not on the lofty ideals of how humanity should aspire to be, but on what it might really be deep down.” But is Desai right? Haven’t people always feared change and its consequences? Remember why Plato was worried about the invention of writing? “If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembr...