National Cabinet reminds us that democracy is a ritualised act, a convention, a habit. It's not a law of physics that must be obeyed and can be made to simply vanish if the right combination of forces, mainly despotism and apathy, combine such that no one believes in it anymore.
Which is the point all despots live by: we don't have to tell you anything and discussion is tedious. Saddam Hussein famously loved "debate." He'd slam a pistol on the cabinet table and say, "Now let's have an open discussion about what I just decided."
I'm sure many Iraqis believed they were living in an open democracy. There were candidates, elections, a representative body that sat every so often, thumbs were stained with ink. Announcements were made of debates held and policies discussed. Are we close to that delusion?
@threadreaderapp Unroll please.
