For Ancient Greeks, Our Modern Democracy is an Oligarchy.

[Hash]

https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/21/ancient-greeks-democracy-oligarchy/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Our modern politics and vocabulary owes the Ancient Greek democracy-demo-kratia
” which is made up of two words: “Demos” meaning people and “Kratia” meaning rule.
When we used hang around Acropolis where there is a tree under which voting took place simply by raising hands in favour, majority wins!

 

[Vangelis]

Interesting that anarchy gets only one fleeting mention in the article. The reality is that ancient Greek (Athenian) democracy is more akin to anarchy. Another ancient word that needs to be broken down to better understand its true meaning. An-archos - without authority - meaning direct involvement of the people in decision-making and power sharing with no hierarchies involved. Modern society is now full of hierarchies and power pyramids which dominate and suppress the people. It's difficult to see a way out of the current hierarchical mess that megalomaniacs have created to dominate us but I am currently writing a book about it "Restructuring Capitalism" which will discuss a practical, viable way of doing just that. Bringing democracy (the power to make decisions) back to the people and breaking down those hierarchies in the process.