Republic VS Democracy

The Republic of the United States of America

This is a pretty interesting and informative video about political structures. It’s centered around the United States, but it’s still very relevant to most of us.

I agree with many of the ideas in this video, such as the fact that excessive government is ultimately detrimental, and yet that some government is needed if the people of a given state are to have political, economic and social freedom.

The video is far from perfect though. It makes many generalizations and conveniently avoids touching on the valid criticisms of capitalism and the flaws of a Republic. Some things that come to mind are the exploitation that goes on in capitalism, which Karl Marx was particularly vocal about. The current economic crisis today is a unfortunate but stellar example of this. The problems inherent in the jury system are ignored, and ultimately we are presented with a seemingly convincing argument with several logical fallacies.

Do watch this with an open mind and remember to question what you hear.

I do find it very interesting to note that the founders of America were not very supportive of pure democracy. Is this still relevant in modern day? I would say that ultimately we always need to draw a fine balance between everything, and that we should always be suspicious of anything which seems to over-generalize and provide a solve-it-all solution.