I thought it was a Democracy, Not Bureaucracy.

You can’t win an election through bureaucracy, just like you can’t win a game of football through challenging all the calls.

The worst state of being is when you are powerless and voiceless. We’ve all been there, a place where our voice was not valued, we felt powerless, scared, lost and un easy. Over the years and many social experiments it finally led us to Democracy. Democracy has brought more people out of poverty, given them a place and value in the world. It would be prudent to say that democracy is the most powerful system the human species has developed.

Democracy ensures that leaders job was to compete for their vote. Leaders are to listen to the population and earn an opportunity to serve them. It has worked really, really well and the roof is America Everywhere in the world we have become a beacon and ideal to strive for.

However lately I feel we have lost the spirit of democracy. Political parties have begun trying to win elections through Bureaucracy, not Democracy. This really surprises me. Everybody knows the rules of our Democracy, so then why aren’t we playing by the rules? Why are the leaders trying to find a loophole to try to win. If you want to vote go out and get it. You can’t win an election through bureaucracy, just like you can’t win a game of football through challenging all the calls.

Just as a reminder to all of us, this is why I feel democracy works:

• Every voice counts — Everybody’s voice is protected, this ensures we all feel empowered, but also gives us a chance to hear things so we can learn from each other.
• We are supposed to experiment — “Would you rather be right, or surprised?” The American spirit is a pioneering one. We must test the limits and boundaries to learn, grow and strive for excellence. If we are afraid to loose or entertain other’s opinions how can we grow and adapt? How can we ensure everybody is represented?
• Learning is built in — There will be winners and losers. We can learn from both and make our democracy by systematizing by what we commonly call laws.
• Loosing makes it work — When leaders or ideologies loose that is direct feedback that their approach needs to change to win the votes of the people. If loosing, not winning, does not happen, we will no longer grow.
• Checks and Balances — No one individual or entity is to have too much power so that the voice of an individual is compromised.
• Democracy happens locally — We have come into a habit of watching leaders debate in grand stages. Those debates, though they may be useful, should really happen at a local level with common citizens. Ideally politicians should come and listen to our Socratic discussions so that they can learn how to represent us. These discussions not be done with a purpose of winning an election but developing a clearer outlook. This concept is not new, Greeks did this, Socratic discussions were to be had at places called Schola.

To all the people out there, to all the politicians, let us lose, let us learn, let our voices be heard and respected. More than anything don’t use bureaucracy to win, if you lose, regroup, listen, learn, grow and try it again. It’s the only way we will be strong, it is the only way that will allow for creative destruction.