The question isn't whether democracy is better than various forms of authoritarianism one can propose as the supposed "alternatives". We know it's better than those, so to advance them at all, as if we had to choose either "democracy" or one of those authoritarian systems, is to erect a straw man to support your argument. This is why I don't think Churchill's famous remark about it being "better than all the alternatives" was very perceptive. It was a clever bit of rhetoric. But it wasn't perceptive.

The question is whether our present democracies are functioning well or poorly in the light of the expectations we were brought up with when we were born into this society. Are people being treated on a fair and equal basis? Is social justice being served? Is the government genuinely serving the people? Or is it serving a small and privileged elite?

So...whaddya think? Should we just comfort ourselves by saying, "Oh, it's better than all the alternatives (and what ARE all the alternatives? No one really has an answer for that).....or should we inquire as to whether this present democracy has some really serious flaws and problems that need addressing?

Churchill was delivering a clever little sound bite and taking a swipe at fascism. Let's face it...fascism is a pretty extreme alternative. You don't have to want to turn to
fascism to think there is something seriously wrong with "democracy" in the modern world....and what's mainly wrong with it is that it's being run on the basis of money, not on the basis of any consistent form of moral principle. Decisions are being made to secure huge profits....for a few....at great cost to the many.

Society now is run as if money itself was God, and those people who have the most money get to live rather like little gods. That's not a very healthy democracy, in my opinion. In fact, I think it's moving steadily in the direction of one of the more unpleasant alternatives that Churchill was alluding to in his remarks. It's moving in the direction of fascism. Or you could call it corporatism. Or even feudalism (complete with lords and serfs). It's an alliance between extremely aggressive militarism, a greedy and ammoral big business community, and bankers who enrich themselves by what amounts to a pyramid scheme, one that has by now basically bankrupted the entire world in yet another "boom and bust" scenario.

We've seen that before. It's not new. It has happened repeatedly when governments failed to strictly regulate the activities of the largest banks.

You see its direct result in the fact that an American dollar is now worth a tiny fraction of what it was 100 years ago....and is minted in almost worthless metals now...while real stuff (like bread or a chicken) is worth exactly what it ever was, in real terms...but not in our inflated and devalued currency.

As long as the society that we live in serves money rather than serving its founding principles of establishing equality, freedom, and justice, then we are not, in my opinion, living in a real democracy. We're living in the charade of a rapidly vanishing democracy. Is it better than it would be living under Stalin or Hitler or Mao? Yeah, sure it's better than that. But why should I take comfort in a deteriorating situation and dishonestly endorse it by quoting as the supposed alternative another situation that's even worse?

It's like there's this boy whose father beats him frequently, lies to him, and humiliates him. The boy complains about it. And you say to him, "Hey, it's better than living with Harry the Ax Murderer, isn't it? See? Why are you complaining? It's better than the 'alternative', isn't it?"

Well, yeah! But so what? Harry the Ax Murderer is not that boy's problem and is NOT the only alternative! His father's present abuse of him is his problem. That's what needs to change.

Our democracies need to change considerably, because they have become abusive to the general public. This does not mean we have to replace them with one of the scary authoritarian "alternatives" people trot out to show you how lucky you are to be living in the Corporatocracy. It means we need to improve what we've got and return to the original moral principles on which it was founded.

You have to ask yourself, did the Founding Fathers intend to build a nation which worshipped money and militarism above all else? I don't think so. If they did, then I wouldn't wish to be a part of it. If a society like that exists, I'm sorry to say that it is the natural enemy of humanity and of the world...until it changes its mind about what its real purposes and ideals are.