Democracy is the worst form of government—except for all the others that have been tried.”

That’s what you said, Sir Winston.

And like most great British quotes, it sounds clever enough to survive centuries without scrutiny.

But today, let’s scrutinize it.

Democracy is not the worst.

It is, in fact, one of the best things we ever built—which makes what we’ve done with it even more pathetic.

Athens understood this. Democracy wasn’t a throne or a trophy—it was oxygen. A temporary infusion. A chance to breathe long enough to invent something better. And Athens did—drama, philosophy, geometry, history. It changed the world with a population smaller than a modern tech company's staff.

But then it stopped. It used the air, not to build a new atmosphere, but to admire how high it could jump.

And it suffocated.

We did the same.

We found democracy. We blended it with liberalism. It gave us momentum, power, knowledge, medicine, rockets, microchips, and ChatGPT.

And like Athens, we thought we were done.

We mistook the fuel for the destination.

You were wrong, Sir Winston.

Democracy was never meant to be the final form. It was a tool—to buy us time.

Not to rest. Not to tweet. Not to cosplay participation in a system that no longer functions.

You don't use a sprinter's burst in a marathon. Not if you want to finish.

And certainly not if the road is uphill, on fire, and collapsing under you.

If we don’t wake up—if we don’t reinvent again—then democracy won’t save us.

It’ll be our last gasp.

And just like Philippides, who collapsed after his glorious run from Marathon to Athens, our civilization too might fall dead at the finish line,

smiling stupidly,

convinced we made it.

#JustLikeNeanderthals