>>511316974Democracy, especially in its modern Western form, is managed — not in the sense that it's a total illusion, but that its parameters are tightly controlled, its options curated, and its outcomes predictable.
Social movements, including feminist, racial justice, and gender identity movements, are often co-opted, funded, or redirected to serve broader technocratic or geopolitical agendas.
Cultural shifts that erode traditional bonds — family, religion, community — are not always organic, and in many cases, they are accelerated, amplified, or weaponized for social engineering.
Technocratic governance — rule by "experts," often unelected and unaccountable — increasingly overrides democratic will, under the guise of public health, safety, or progress.
Democracy, particularly in the United States, functions not as a system of popular sovereignty, but as a vector for globalization — a managed system of consent that gives the appearance of participation while concentrating power at the top.
This idea echoes critiques from across the ideological spectrum. Noam Chomsky has long argued that democracy in the West is manufactured, with media, education, and policy designed to limit the scope of acceptable dissent.
Michel Foucault described how power operates not just through force, but through discourse, institutions, and norms — shaping how we think, what we desire, and how we organize.
Antonio Gramsci, an Italian Marxist, wrote about cultural hegemony — the process by which ruling classes maintain power not through coercion, but by shaping the values, beliefs, and norms of society.
In this framework, democracy becomes a mechanism for stabilizing elite control, not challenging it. People are given choices within a narrow framework, often between candidates or parties that agree on the fundamental policies of globalization, deregulation, and technocratic governance.