Is it officially safe to view both religion and democracy as tools of the elite to keep the masses in line today - again?

Religion offers so many positives - moral lessons for our young, a sense of community, and a network of like-minded and family-oriented neighbours brought together to remember that our communities are terrific things to give thanks for.

Democracy, on the surface, seems a perfectly fair solution to best reflect the needs and wants of a social majority within a system of self government.

In this article, we present a couple of examples that make both of these enablers appear to be easy tools with which society's 1% of elites can manipulate and control the social majority. And then we also point out that its important that you recognize what are the signs of abuse so that we can all take back the benefits that both systems can offer.

Is a eutopian opinion of these outwardly helpful ideals naive?

Case #1 – Religion

In 1876, King Leopold II of Belgium – first cousin to Queen Victoria of Great Britain – acted on reports of great riches in the heart of Africa by the infamous explorers Stanley and Livingston. The King established a colony 10 times the size of Belgium in the Congo. Human rights atrocities were manifold and estimates of the death toll to the indigenous Congolese population range from two to fifteen million - most sources indicate it was around ten million. To ensure populations were controlled ongoing, he established Christianity in one half of the country- Protestantism in 30%; and then left an approximately 10% standing Muslim population intact so that together, they could kill each other - according to plan - throughout most of the 20^th century. Reputed to be a “thoroughly bad man” by the Emperor of Austria/Hungary, Leopold ensured that Congolese educational curriculum consisted of primarily “religious studies”. His financially successful methods were quickly adopted by Germany, France and Portugal – with similar death tolls.

According to joelx.com, Christianity is still the largest religion on earth, boasting over 2.1 billion members. Islam is closing in fast though with a total count of 1.5 billion people. Agnostic and atheists are the third largest group at 1.1 billion people. Hinduism comes up fourth at 900 million chill folks. Chinese traditional religions host 394 million people. The world contains 376 million Buddhists who are all about Big Bellied Buddha. Primal/tribal beliefs are still 300 million strong even in our supposedly advanced world. African Traditional and Diasporic religions host 100 million people in the 8th place. Sikhism has the 9th most people with 23 million members- What the hell is Sikhism?!? Juche, another unfamiliar religion has 14 million members. Judaism ranks in at the 12th position with 14 million members. Others of interest include Rastafarians (600,000) and Scientology (500,000).

Case #2 – Democracy

Queen Elizabeth II of England has welcomed 12 prime ministers during her 56 year reign. When she assumed the throne of 7 countries in 1952, the cars on the streets of England were near-identical to the cars sold today – “mini”s et al. Queen Elizabeth must be fuming at Democracy because even a Feudal system could have out-performed our present modern democratic quagmire…

How are automobiles a measure of Democratic efficiency? In the early 2000s, "modern" gas-powered cars – which can be purchased for roughly 10 times the cost today for a car that the near-identical power-trained car sold for in 1960. Dodge Hemi-engine cars, for example, are unpopular this year due to oil prices – but this relic of the 1960s still gets around 2% better gas mileage then its 1965 counterpart did, and this retro-auto gets 65% of the mileage that a "state of the art" Toyota Prius does from a gallon of gas.

What benefit has society taken away from the democratic election after election these past 50 years? The answer appears to be - None at all – if the past 11 or so democratic elections in both North America and Great Britain are any indication. A ridiculously high percentage of Canadians and Americans did, however, tune-in to watch Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin compare herself to a "Pitbull wearing lipstick" during the past US Presidential election.

What does is say about our educational system when our masses are so easily head-faked by the electoral show. That we can believe we are "making a difference" by placing our vote for democratic leadership - while the auto industry's status quo (in this example) continued unchanged and challenged - speaks volumes about an electorate with profound and tragic educational shortcomings. 

Now change the word "auto" in the above example for "robot maid", "food replicator", and "clean power" - and then add a couple of your own examples of social advancements - and you begin to get the gist of just how counter-productive a fully democratic government has been to our society over the past 50 years.

In Conclusion:

Religion has been as a tool used to control populations for millenia - the fact is well documented - and democracies have evolving into thinly disguised oligarchies (an oligarchy serves "elite" interests first - an example was the former Apartheid government in South Africa). 

Observations like these above are not unusual within extremest viewpoints throughout the world - and as such they can easily be dismissed as viewpoints representing a very small percentage of the population.

How can we can turn these negatives in society's favour again?

In democratic societies, we appear easily goaded into believing propaganda - or falling for simple influencing tricks like tugging at our emotions - which is why I have stated in a couple of articles that a Monarchy would be a better governance model for our elected representatives. When we decide who we will give power to when we vote. Perhaps its even safe to say that our voting decisions are often more emotional and less fact driven.

Shouldn't society be able to recognize what is a distraction from forward progress - and what is propoganda - and then also be able to teach our kids how to tell the difference as well?

Not to sound like I'm scolding, but it feels like society either needs a more productive system to move itself forward collectively - or it needs to better tool its members to capitalize on the strengths of these systems and defend themselves from opportunitic practises to disproportionately benefit the elite.

John F. Kennedy
Let us resolve to be masters, not the victims, of our history, controlling our own destiny without giving way to blind suspicions and emotions.

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