Democracy dies with a whimper, not a bang « Spailpín

Democracy dies with a whimper, not a bang « Spailpín: "Don’t expect a grandiose forewarning. Do not expect to be greeted by brown-shirted, jack-booted men proclaiming the establishment of a glorious new order, in which the "Invisible Hand" and the Iron Heel maintain order and stability for the wealthy and comfortable. Totalitarianism does not arrive with a single grand gesture, rather it is the incremental encroachment on everyday life, the normalisation of “harsh, but necessary” policing measures to maintain “order”. And while ordinary people throughout the Arab world continue the slow, and dangerous path towards shaking off the yoke of tyranny, governments in Western Europe, in compliant service of “the market”, gradually, steadily, re-define what it means to be a democracy, until the use of the word bears no resemblance to commonly held perceptions of what the concept should entail."?