As for the thesis: Democracy depends upon a shared vision of a society or a nation as a society or nation--when that shared vision breaks down because of propaganda by the plutocrats or equally and oppositely because of abuse of government by them, then what? Predicting the next thing is surely chancy, but "democracy" as we have known it is indeed near the end of the road.
Somehow, I doubt the socialists understand what is happening, but the corporatists surely do: They are banking on fascism: It worked for them before. The Fates are kind.
Why ? Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner - that I moved to Nice.
I would say that even before a shared vision, there has to be a shared universal sense of belonging, stakeholdership (for want of a better word), and responsibility. These are the sine qua nons of any real democracy, and each of them is getting put through the wringer these days (actually, is there ever a time when they are not?).
I would have considered it quasi-fascist when I was younger, but more and more I like the idea of some kind of mandatory national service. In order to preserve one's status as an adult citizen, everyone must serve for a period of time in either military or civil service. This idea has been discussed -- and debated -- at least once before, and probably many times.
(As an aside, I hate the idea of "nationality"/"nationhood", because it contains too much tribalistic residue and lends itself to abuse and exploitation; e.g.
Add to this gloomy picture the temptation to fill the religious and ideological void he denounces with calls to reclaim identity: the castigation of Islam, the creation of a ministry of national identity, the "ethnicization" of a national myth... One begins to understand why this book is titled After Democracy.
But it's the least bad of existing forms of social organization we've come up with so far, so given these conditions, I think a national service is a good thing to maintain the health of these nation-state thingamajiggies.)
Gaianne: Predicting the next thing is surely chancy, but "democracy" as we have known it is indeed near the end of the road.
That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. I believe democracy can be restored back to health. In fact, I think it's still pretty healthy, despite its problems. It can be improved a lot, of course, but the first step to that end is believing that it can be restored/improved/saved. If you don't believe that, then sure, this sucker is going down.
Gaianne: words--or is it your translation?
It's Bertrand Le Gendre's writing. Just pour into it into Google Translate, correct some obvious parsing errors, go to WordReference.com for alternate translations of a few specific words and phrases, and presto, you got your translation. Truth unfolds in time through a communal process.
