Delicate Truth dressed in the beautiful clothes,
To the pitiful, orphans, and cripples to bring some delight.
V. S. Vysotsky

In light of the recent storming of the Capitol and other unrest in the United States, mass groans and lamentations rose up in the media and social networks over the allegedly desecrated democracy. That fundamental democratic principles are being violated. About the fact that democracy is sick and does not fulfill its functions. That dissenters are being harassed, the mouths of the unwanted are being silenced, and alternative opinions are being suppressed. That forgeries, falsifications and unfair decisions are being committed. How could that be? Is this democracy? Democracy is pure, airy freedom, hovering in white clothes above everyone, not offending anyone, giving everyone their say and immediately punishing any injustice. And here…

Citizens, please take it easy and moderate your denunciatory fervor. I assure you that what we are witnessing is true democracy, unabridged, untainted, no worse than any other democracy. That is exactly what it is, so please love it. And to those who won’t like it, we… but about that a little bit below.

In order to save our nerves from unnecessary indignation and to avoid entertaining illusions, we must calmly understand what democracy is and what it is like. Because democracy is always some kind. There is no such thing as pure, nor is there any color, taste, or smell that is not associated with a particular object.

Democracy is firmly linked to the type of social economic formation and is defined by it. There is a slave democracy. This, of course, is ancient Athens; we love it and often set it as an example. There was also feudal democracy. What a splendid example of democracy was the Seimas of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth – the liberum veto! It was enough for one magnate to vote against it, and the decision could not be made. It’s much more democratic, isn’t it? Today, we have a bourgeois democracy, just like in the United States. It cannot be any other, because the bourgeois class is in power.

Was it democratic to kill a slave? Of course, he was not a human being, and democracy in slave-owning Athens was only for slave-owners.

Was it democratic to flog a slave? For God’s sake! Democracy in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth concerned only the gentry. Try some redneck to claim he has rights!

Is it democratic in the United States to commit fraud in the vote count, to interrupt the president’s speech, to ban him from social media? Of course, that is what the majority of the ruling class decided. Ah, they didn’t ask your opinion, dear average citizen? Well, what kind of democracy is this? Remember? Do you have a billion dollars? Then come on in and we’ll listen to you. No? You can go where you were aptly sent by Mr. Polonsky.

So, “what kind” – we figured out. Now we need to answer the question “what”. And there is a clear answer to this question: democracy is a form of state. The bourgeois state can exist in the form of democracy and fascism. Fascism is an open terrorist dictatorship, and democracy is a covered, not a terrorist dictatorship of the same ruling class. The current US state has more than enough cover: popular elections, parliamentary bicameral, independent courts, mayors, sheriffs and deputies of various calibers freely elected. Well then. Since all of this is available, it means that democracy reigns in this celebration of life. When they crack down on parliament, declare the Fuhrer, and get all the highly disgruntled behind barbed wire, that’s another matter. Not yet.

What really happened? Why do they shout and smear innocent democracy with their unflattering epithets? And the following happened. Due to the split in the upper consensus and disagreements in the ruling class of the United States, the veil of democracy has been lifted somewhat and partially revealed an unsightly view of some of the mechanisms of the state machine. And those who expected to see under this veil that very tender truth in beautiful clothes, playing the harp of universal harmony, suddenly discovered a coarse, smoky, sparkling, thundering and crushing living flesh in its gears in the style of the darkest steam-punk. Getting rid of illusions of this level of entrenchment in the mind is hard to bear. But those who succeeded without hysterics and howls became a little smarter. And now they will never pin their hopes on the fact that throwing a piece of paper into a drawer, they will change the direction of trillion-dollar cash flows. And they won’t ask stupid questions about why their elected representatives are suddenly advocating not their interests, the interests of ordinary voters, but even the opposite.

And do not offend democracy. She’s innocent!

Sergei Mekhnev