Elections

 

 

Now, fighting against this society is the other group, democracy. But that too is only an ideology: "For the people, of the people, by the people" -- but where does it exist? Have you seen democracy anywhere? It does not exist anywhere at all. It is just a facade, a show.

 

Yes, countries like America have a two-party system, but have you noticed? -- both the parties have almost the same program. What differences are there in their programs? Very strange....

 

One party rules four years; people get fed up with it, bored, seeing the same faces on the television, in the newspapers the same speeches, the same slogans, the same promises; no possibility of any fulfillment of anything. The problems go on growing and people get fed up: "Four years you have been given and you wasted them."

 

The other party -- which has the same type of people, the same type of ideas -- is gaining sympathy. There is no difference either in people or ideologies. But this is a game, a very psychological game.

 

People's memories are very short; four years is a long time. One party is defeated because people were getting bored and it was doing nothing. The other party gets the sympathy. What else to do? You have to choose between two kinds of dodos!

 

I have never voted in my life. My whole family was politically oriented. They were all fighters for freedom; they have been in prison, have suffered -- naturally when the country became free they found themselves in politics. My uncles would tell me, "You are an educated person -- why don't you use your power of vote? That is power to create government or change government."

 

I said, "I understand, but to change one dodo for another dodo is just futile. It doesn't matter; it just changes names and everything remains the same." In fact it is better to keep the old dodo there, because sooner or later he will have accumulated enough wealth, power, name, fame; he will become less greedy. Obviously, there is always a saturation point.

 

When you change from the old dodo, you give power to a new dodo -- one was Republican, the other is Democrat; the new dodo immediately plunges into accumulating as much as he can, because four years will be finished soon and people will be fed up with him also.

 

So for four years he exploits whatsoever he can. Meanwhile the other party is gaining sympathy. This is the game. And people are forgetting, "This party we have thrown out already." How many times in America have you thrown out the Republicans? And how many times have you thrown out the Democrats? And how many times are you going to do the same thing again and again?

 

Just simply count: in two hundred years how many times has the same party been thrown out? If you had any intelligence, once a party was thrown out it would be thrown forever! It has no intelligence, no potential, no ideology; that should be the end. But two parties just go on changing.... And this is a very subtle conspiracy. They appear opposed to each other -- and they are befooling the whole country.

 

In Russia there is one party, in America there are two parties -- but there is no difference. In America you need to befool people every four years; in Russia they have been befooled once and forever. They got rid of the need to befool -- what is the point? And I don't see that there is any difference, but it seems to be democratic.

 

-Osho, “From Misery to Enlightenment, #27, Q1“