Democracy? No to the Referencum!

Musings #73
October 3, 2004
The 18th of Tishrei

Democracy?
No to the Referendum!

The majority isn’t always right. Whoever it was who said that a people get the government they deserve was probably right, especially if he was referring the the “democratic process.”

This topic has been rattling around in my head for quite a while, sort of stuttering to be heard. I know it’s a sensitive topic, one that can really alienate some readers. Sometimes I write my musings quickly, fluently, without fits and starts, but usually they wander in various directions until after lots of typing and judicious deletes, they take proper form. And sometimes, once they’re finished I wonder where the words really came from.

Today I was sure some of the women at the kotel wondered what was going on. They saw a middle-aged woman in the middle of saying t’hilim who kept taking out paper and pen to write, turning the paper in all sorts of directions to find empty space, and in the end, it was put in her purse, not crammed in a crack between the ancient stones.

The majority is sometimes very wrong, remember Adolf Hitler was elected to office in a democratic election. The holy majority gave him his power. The majority can’t be trusted to do what’s moral, what’s right. Democracy is a very unreliable religion. Yes, it’s a religion, and so is liberalism, socialism and communism. It’s amazing how makpid, strict, people can be towards a religion that substitutes ideology or fashion for G-d.

Millions of people all over the world, who consider tzniyut, the Jewish laws of modesty, to be primitive, neurotic and worse, would die before showing up to a “white tie” affair in a knee-length dress or sports jacket. G-dless religions take many forms.

I could have had gone to the Bible for examples of how the majority errs on major issues. The classic case, straight from the Biblical text, is the story of the “scouts,” frequently called “The Sin of the Spies.” Soon after the Jewish People escaped from Egypt, under the leadership of Moshe, he sent a delegation of twelve, the elite from each of the tribes. They were asked to “scout” the Land, like a modern “pilot trip,” before everyone was to enter. Instead of encouraging the people, or at least coming up with a workable game plan, ten out of the twelve—the vast majority—reported that problems were ahead. They did a very logical, rational “feasibility study” and analyzed the facts on the ground very carefully. The obvious conclusion was that entering the Land would be too dangerous. Moshe, Joshua and Calev did their best to persuade otherwise, and in the following referendum, the majority of the people voted with the ten. That’s the reason for the forty year trek, until a new generation replaced those who voted with the majority of spies/scouts.

No offense, but I have this feeling that many readers won’t be swayed by the Biblical example. So I was wracking my brain for a better example, unconnected to modern politics but close enough, so that no one can accuse me of partisan politics, so while sitting close to the kotel and saying t’hilim, it hit me. And since I admit to advanced “information overload” I knew that if I didn’t write it down...

Hitler’s election is a classic, also the subsequent reactions of the German people to obey all of his edicts. The non-Jewish Germans who with unbridled enthusiasm restricted and attacked the Jews, and the Jews who humbly and with strict, law-abiding “dignity” accepted the “inconveniences.” Only a very small minority of both populations refused.

In my humble opinion, the results of a referendum have even less legitimacy than the toss of a coin.

If we had honest, patriotic leadership here in Israel, nobody would even think of a referendum, and there wouldn’t be Judenrat-like letters sent to Jewish families. If we had honest, patriotic leadership here in Israel Jews would be proudly and enthusiastically encouraged to live in all of Eretz Yisrael. If we had honest, patriotic leadership here in Israel, no foreigner would even think of criticizing us. If only we had honest, patriotic leadership here in Israel…

“Heimah kar’u v’naflu, v’anachnu kamnu v’nit’oded. Hashem hoshi’ah, HaMelech ya’aneinu b’yom kar’einu.” (T’hilim Psalms XX, 9-10) “They slumped and fell, but we were invigorated. G-d, save! May the King answer us on the day we call.”

Shilohmuse@yahoo.com
http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/
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