I would disagree with the first half of this essay. I recommend reading “Political Order and Political Decay” by Francis Fukuyama. I will be starting the second volume soon.

For the second half of the essay, you might be right. The prosperity of Europe did not lead to wiser populace. I remember much of the Greek/EU problem was trying to increase the pension age from 58 to something higher. Those Greeks approaching pension age could not make the connection as to why their grandkids were leaving Greece to find work.

I am amazed at how few westerners do not understand how western democracy works. My mother says she had to take a civics class in school — to understand the citizens’ relationship with their government. We don’t that any more in Canada, rather the students are provided with a pop history version of our country.

When George Bush 2 invaded Iraq, he believed that democracy would take hold in six months. There is a naive belief that democracy is a natural tendency for humanity, but in fact, oligarchy is the natural way.

We need to be trained to participate in western democracy — and we could argue that that training has been lax in recent decades.

In a like manner, a TDG-type governance will also require training. And hopefully the eventual TDG will not relax on this training.