Home For Fiction – Blog

The words “idiot” and “idiocy” originate from the ancient Greek word ιδιώτης (“idiotes”), which has sadly lost its meaning in modern Greek. Nowadays, it means “a private employee” (i.e. in contrast to a public employee). But in ancient Greek, its meaning was far more intriguing: it meant someone so self-centered and absorbed with private matters, that he neglected the duties of citizenship: to discuss, vote, and participate in matters of public interest.

The job of the citizen is not to vote

Today we might call someone an idiot for many reasons. “You idiot, you forgot the door open”. “Hey, you idiot, the picture you took is blurry”. “John, you idiot, you still owe me $10 from last week”. But how many times have you heard someone saying: “Hey, you idiot, why don’t you become an informed citizen and participate in constructive dialog”?

The problem with democracy is that it depends on the people, the citizens. Good citizens create good democracy; bad citizens create bad democracy. The kind of democracy we have nowadays is appalling. But what do you expect from citizens who are uninformed, and – which is worse – unwilling to be informed? Dictatorship can give you 100% or 0% – although, more often than not, we end up with Idi Amins and Pol Pots, rather than Marcus Aureliuses. Democracy is designed to, supposedly, give you at least 50% (but rarely anything better).

Another misunderstanding with democracy is that people are under the impression their job begins and ends in the voting booth. But that, too, stems from the same problem plaguing a world of idiotai – idiots: The unwillingness to assume responsibility. “I vote for the people who will represent me, that’s the whole idea”, the idiotes will say. In actual fact, s/he chooses the savior who will descend upon a cloud to make things right (while the voter sits on a couch and browses Facebook).

What we have today, in virtually every supposedly democratic country, is not democracy. Why?
Because those who vote are not citizens but idiotai