Equality, justice and the rule of law are nice and all, but money talks, it's no wonder two party systems rule in most of the main democracies like the USA, UK and up until recently Ireland, Dissatisfaction with two-party politics is at an all-time high, new Gallup polling shows over 70 percent of Americans saying more parties are needed and the two parties are not representing the majority of Americans, now if you can decipher that then that is more than enough proof that democracy is an illusion as without the massive wealth, power and influence you will have no way of mobilising the population to vote differently or change the system to bring in or create other parties to make the necessary changes the majority of people actually want, you will also have to deal with the main political parties and the many of the top 1% who have massive control and influence (like the tightly controlled media who the owners usually have very close links with the main parties and the system in general) will do everything in their power to discredit you if they feel you are a threat.
Things only changed in Ireland because a massive entity on this island (the IRA) decided to throw all it's power and influence into the world of politics.
In any given historical period, the ideas that people generally think are the best and most important ideas are usually the ideas of the people in charge. If you have a lot of money and own a lot of property, then you have the power to propagandise your worldview and you have incentive to avoid appearing as if you’re propagandising your worldview.
The ideas of the one per cent become the dominant ideas because the one per cent convinces the 99 per cent that its ideas are the only rational and universally valid ideas. Consider free-market capitalism. The idea says that growth provides prosperity to all, that government governs best when it governs least, so there’s no need to discuss the redistribution of wealth.
Now don't get me wrong, There are tons of people extremely angry at this, disgusted by the choice between Pepsi and Coke they are offered every four years and are then told that the people are in charge, but without massive power, wealth and influence there is nothing they can do about it and if they had the massive power and wealth necessary it's unlikely they would want to do anything about it either.
The point of the thread is that once you have such a high proportion of wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, then true democracy cannot exist and has never existed, in the USA the top 1% have on average 16 times the wealth as the bottom 50% and things aren't much different in the UK and Ireland.
