Education: The Basis of Democracy

Current Political Map: Cause Of The Disease

This discussion begins with an analogy: traditional medicine usually looks for the causes of the diseases; only then is it possible to talk about the cure for those diseases. Cancer, for example, is a disease which has been impossible to find a cure for yet. However, it can still be successfully treated in some patients who can indefinitely remain in remission. Most treatments are invasive (removing the malignant tumors with surgery, chemotherapy, radio therapy or a combination of them). Luckily the tumor might never return. If it does not for at least 5 years, oncologists assert that it is unlikely for the tumor to ever come back and then, they speak about “clinical cure”. However, nobody talks about cure of cancer right after the treatment is applied. There is no question that if the cause was known, then it could be possible to develop new treatments that would lead to a real cure.

This analogy can help to understand some of the issues democracy reveals. The Occupy Wall street movement attempted an “invasive treatment” against “malignant tumors” which could well represent be the corrupt politicians who enrich and take advantage of the democratic system (Karin E.D, 2017). The angry citizens clamored for more transparency and for tougher punishments for politicians who were unable to deal with the worldwide crisis; there was a tremendous debate about corrupt politicians, abuse of power from banks and corporations, and exorbitant salaries.

In medical terms, they clearly focused on eliminating the malignancy of the existing political class by cutting the roots of all the corruption and negligence. It was hard work. Some politicians were bothered by them, and maybe they did change some of their corrupt behavior, but as the cancer returns, corrupt politicians always have the chance to come back. It seems logical to think that the cause of this “social cancer” that society suffers is still unknown or misdiagnosed, in the same way as the root cause of the cancer is a medical sickness. Again, the clues suggest that politicians are not the cause but the symptoms of a serious disease. And as in traditional medicine, treating the symptoms can provide some relief but does not provide the cure.

Let us go back to medical allegory and focus on diseases such as the autoimmune ones. In these, the treatments try to address the symptoms with drugs (pain, tremor, fatigue) because no one knows the cause, and therefore it is the only alternative. As the cause is not treated, the disease progresses in most cases, and then new symptoms appear (more pain, weakness, dizziness). By treating the symptoms in this “political sickness,” which are mainly corruption, non-professionalism, and the lack of qualifications in the political class, the cause still exists; therefore, the new symptoms will eventually appear. (This can be detected as rising unemployment rates, rising debt and deficits, social impoverishment, and useless wars) It seems a never-ending spiral, because sooner or later perhaps other politicians with different faces but the same policies will act in a similar way. Although it is clear that many countries develop and grow, it is also clear that it is matter of time until corruption and non-prepared governments have a chance to hurt them again.

Occupy cities demonstrations emerged just right before the Spanish elections. As mentioned before, the main goal was to clean the political class and therefore to improve this society (Bainbridge, 2008). However, a few days later, the results of the elections made one of the two major parties the winner (once again); then some of the members of the winning party were involved in corruption cases, and they earned stratospheric salaries. The same history occurred with the party that lost. It had members involved in corruption, although that didn’t stop the fact that it obtained a large representation in Congress. This suggests that treating the symptoms (targeting the politicians) is not effective in the long run and somehow proves that no matter how much societies demand from politicians, citizens must blame them and accuse them. In the next election, it is very possible that one of the two major parties will be elected again (Disch, 2002)