We Make and Break our Democracies

My legal name is Christian Knuchel, but you can call me Aziroshin if you like. Bern, Switzerland is my current location of residence. For years I have written away on political matters in comment sections on various websites, Youtube most of all, tweeted on issues that stir me or otherwise shouted and pondered into the void. For me, politics is a source of agony, a catalyst that drains and ignites me at the same time, but no matter how I try to turn away and nurture myself into a more healthy direction, it takes so little to fall right back into it; a dour affliction clawing at me as if it was a shadow of mine.

I can't leave it alone, not forever, not truly. So I write, and am, perhaps, slowly coming to accept politics as a part of my life. One that might, given time or circumstance, end up consuming me one way or another.

Now, perhaps I'm a fool who doesn't even know that he knows nothing, but as fools are wont to do, I will flail at what I perceive to be ills anyway, and share what I believe to be the truth as I believe to be seeing it.

As far as the heart of my political passion is concerned, I'm an advocate for a society based on solidarity and consideration for one another. Mostly, this translates into me being a social democrat and social libertarian. As far as my call for a gradual reformation of the private sector into being predominantly owned by worker cooperatives is concerned, my stance on economic policy also comes with a left wing libertarian tinge.

Yes, social democracy is a mess, but the reason for that is simple: Everything humanity does is a mess. Sure, maybe there is a beautiful equation to have a perfect, uncorrupted society. Maybe we'll mine the Kuiper belt one day to build a ringworld, too. Until then, I believe that all we can do is work with the mess, make it better, less corrupt. In that light, from all the messes we've had in documented history, social democracy has coincided with the greatest amount of economic success, tangible happiness and development. I say that we take that and build on it, instead of trying to force experiments with immensely destructive potential, or choose to outright regress into documented failures.

As some of you might have already figured at this point, I haven't come here to spread superficial positivity, or to accrue favour by carefully engineering myself into people's good graces. I have come here to write about problems and solutions, and I will not be shy to cast blame or clearly state what I consider to be the right thing to do or not to do. There might also be the occasional philosophical excursion, or an article on an entirely different subject, though. First and foremost, I'm interested in Steem as a blockchain solution to store writing in a way that can't easily be censored or destroyed.

To those who do not like what they read, I say that they are exactly the ones who should be reading it: The right wingers, the centrists, the oh-so-clever "unaffiliated", the self-proclaimed "libertarians", the non-voters, and enemies of democracy. For I believe, if we can get those who are set to benefit from egalitarian policies, and those who truly care, to stand together, it is possible to outvote the minority of people who are set to genuinely benefit from and push for an increasingly elitarian society.

In order to do that, enough people need to truly appreciate the power that they hold, that voting isn't useless, that things can change. However, that realization means nothing when one then allows oneself to be engineered into voting against one's own goals and interests, for then, voting is truly rendered useless, but not by any fault in the system, but by one's own.

I'm under no illusion that any writing that I've done in the past, or that I'll do in the future, has much of a chance of making an actual dent. However, at least I'll be one of tens of thousands of needles scratching away at the paint job. And just like with voting: If everyone thought it useless, there wouldn't be as much as an appearance of democracy.

If anything, remember this: It all starts with you, and it all ends with you.

For verification purposes:

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aziroshin (I'll be linking to this article there)
• Discord: Christian Knuchel#9757
• Photo: