Speak Up

I have a confession. Almost every day I go to school, I find myself eavesdropping on other people's conversations. I am an eavesdropper. Most conversations I listen to aren't really important or even worth hearing, but occasionally I will listen in on a conversation that I am interested in. Usually these conversations are involving politics. Listening to what other people say to their friends about issues, I've decided, is much different than actually talking to a stranger face to face about what they believe. People are willing to open up to their friends and share all of their thoughts. Some ideas from different individuals are very interesting such as - global warming is not real, capitalism is evil, the United States is becoming socialist - these are just a few of the things I overhear every day.

Democracy is an interesting thing. An educated, well informed populace can make for an extremely powerful and effective force working together. Over the last few months, I have found myself thinking about other people's ideas and actually being afraid knowing that they were also contributing to the vital decisions that the US faces every day. To put it in the words of an anonymous savant, "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large numbers." Thinking of that saying can make Democracy seem a little scary at times, I know; but much to my surprise, I've recently developed a new state of thinking.

I'm glad there are so many opinions in the world. It keeps things in balance. As long as people have bad ideas, there should exist good ideas and vice versa. My biggest worry now is that many people don't have an opinion. Many of us don't care what is going on in our country and we would rather let someone else make decisions for us. We have mentally elected kings and rulers over us. The beautifully scary thing about Democracy is that as the people making the decisions, we can choose to not decide anything. We can choose to do away with Democracy all together if we like.

I am going to redouble my efforts to get involved in our nation's affairs and at least be informed on important matters, and I can only hope that more of us will do the same. After all, the only difference between you living in a Democracy and you living in an Aristocracy is your own voice.