How about.... Democratic extremism =p

There has been a flurry of articles about how Islamic terrorism is not due to Islam, but to Extremism instead. To place undue criticism on the moderate Islamic would be terribly unfair. This has been said time and time again, and I’m not so sure whether the point really gets across. So here it is again:

Extremism is the problem here. Extremism, when applied to any subject, will warp it beyond recognition. This reminds me of a fictional story that I’ve seen before and would like to share about a kind of “Democratic Extremism”.

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There exists this country that is ruled by a tyrannical king. The king oppressed the people with heavy taxes and poor treatment, forcing the peasantry into poverty while filling his own coffers. There came a day when the people revolted and the king was captured by the mob. The people had many ideas about what to do with the king, ranging from jail to exile to execution. To settle the dispute, the peasantry decided to have a vote In the end the pro-executors won, and the king was summarily beheaded.

The people of the land began to like the idea of voting, because it placed power in their hands. They decided to make it their form of governance, where all national matters would be settled by a popular vote. Things like how the land should be divided, who should produce which goods….they were all decided by voting. But different people had different ideas, and many were unhappy when the side they took was outvoted. Soon there were small pockets of violence and protests everywhere.

It wasn’t long before the people began to think about how simple their very first vote on executing the king was. They decided that the best method to enforce social stability, was to simply execute the losing party, since the winners would end up with a bigger slice of the pie, and there won’t be any protests since the protesters would be dead! After a little bloody struggle with the concept, the country soon came to terms with accepting the idea, since those who didn’t weren’t in a…… position to speak.

But as the days went by, the country got smaller and smaller due to the massive number of voting contests that kept appearing. The country eventually degenerated into a population of 3: a couple, and their close friend. One day, the friend decided that he wanted to leave the country for greener pastures. The couple didn’t take too kindly to that, and the friend was outvoted 2 to 1. They buried him in their backyard soon after that.

And so ends the tale of a country that embraced extremism, from a proud peasantry that overthrew tyranny, to the misguided couple who ended up executing their best friend.