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Democracy without education is a fallacy. And a pretty dumb fallacy at that. Let me elaborate.

To say that I have become, over time, disenchanted with the whole concept of democracy is inaccurate. Truth is I was never that much of a fan.

Turns out the most overall productive times of mankind were not democratic. Empires seem to work best.

But, of course, democracy is ideally better than any other form of government, it is fairer, more humane and it evens the playground so we all have the same opportunities.

Now ideally is the key word in that statement: reality is democracy does not really work that way. In my country anyway. Here, you can't run for pretty much any popularly elected office if you are not part of a political party. So you really only have three choices, and if non of them reflects your beliefs or opinions, well, fuck you then.

No party reflects what I think, no candidate is proposing what I believe we need. None of those assholes means anything to me. Unsurprisingly, that feeling is disproportionately common nowadays, as we are al tired of the same old shit. But I digress, I was going at the concept of democracy.

Now, I am a liberal and all, and I believe in equal rights for everybody-- don't get me wrong. The problem with democracy is that it elects officials on the basis of popularity rather than capacity. So ship captains, chief engineers, hospital directors and CEOs are appointed on merit, while the president is elected on a remarkably similar way to the class president.

Sure, ideally (that word again) we would not be fooled by pretty prose on speeches and heart-warming propaganda: our critical-thinking-based education protect us from it.

But our (that of those of us lucky enough to have had one) education is not critical-thinking-based. The truth is that even honestly functioning democracies (assuming that any of those even exists) lets a very important decision on the hand of uneducated, easily-swayed, emotionally voluble masses.

Instead of having our president, governor and mayor be chosen among an elite of very experienced academics, economists, business people and true community leaders, we have to pick a president from a bunch of politics.

Ugh.

So, how do you make democracy actually good?

Well, first you need a strong education. Teach kids to question everything, to do independent research, to be honest with what cold data shows and to be socially responsible. Teach them economics, social science and fucking history, lots and lots of history. Then get rid of political parties, base campaigns on practical proposals and make mandatory background checks on candidates.

Then everybody makes an educated, well-thought, reasoned vote, and the guy best fitted gets the office.

Seems easy enough... right?