Democracy

Oh, Democracy,* You, the most desirable bride among Political systems, Your suitors many have been throughout History In every part of the world, you were the one They were after But You declined their proposals, despite the fact All suitors, to charm you, they have tried, With great honors, and by putting your name Next to theirs, to allure you to sanctify their Biased politics Thus The oligarchs The Despots The Tyrants The dictators The totalitarians and Many more All Have declared themselves to be: Your fervent admirers, Your ardent devotees, Your fierce protectors, Of your eternal principles By Wrapping themselves in your Heavenly gown and calling themselves your Beloved ones But you, unyielding remained For You knew, that no one has succeeded in measuring up To the ideals, your wise father, SOLON,** has set And to the glorious values with which he Nurtured you, those superb principles: Of Virtue Of justice Of ethics Of freedom Of equality Of autonomy Of self-knowledge Of responsibility Of selfishness And Of the paramount devotion to The common good and the happiness Of the people you serve! It is for that reason, you, oh Democracy, Seldom have shown any favoritism to any of Your suitors, for all, fell short of Your lofty aspirations Thus You were, unfortunately, for very Lengthy periods of time mistreated, neglected, subjugated and Exploited by your pretenders: The immoral The unjust The dishonorable The Ignorant The power-thirsty The warmongers The money seekers, Who Chose to ignore all that you stood for and Disregarded the common good and The happiness of the people they supposed to serve For To promote their own interest and those of Their cronies Thus Ruining the chances of any truly democratic society to Be established For that reason, oh Democracy, I understand you now Why a spinster, you, have chosen to Remain! © Demetrios Trifiatis 16 OCTOBER 2014 * Democracy is the combination of two words: Demos and Cratos. Demos means the People and Cratos means Power so Democracy means “ Power to the People.” It will be helpful to read my poem “ THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY” for a better understanding. **The concept of Democracy is deeply rooted in the Greek Psyche! We see it in the Mythology where Zeus, the supreme God, is just “first among equals” Then appears in Homer’s poems but the father of Democracy is asserted to be Solon, the Athenian who was one of the seven wise men of old. Solon, 7th –6th centuries B.C. was the theoretician that established Democracy. Solon considered the pillars of Democracy to be Justice and Virtue. So every politician should be Just and virtuous and his main objective would be to safeguard the well-being and happiness of the people and that of the state's plus the wealth to be distributed justly among the citizens. Knowledge, responsibility, self-control, self-knowledge, sacrifice, and equality, had to be characteristics of every citizen. Plato said that “Virtue is worth as much as all gold that is possessed by all people put together and all gold that is still in the ground.” To that Aristotle added that “ every politician has to be forged on the anvil of virtue.”