Democracy breeds demagogues who manipulate the ignorant masses who are ill-equipped to resist the demagogue’s ascent. As history has repeatedly proven, the masses are apt to embrace and celebrate the demagogue. The demagogue procures the masses’ adulation through his or her employment of counterfactual propaganda—which is typically rooted in nationalistic racism and a promise to return the state to halcyon days of yore. The demagogue’s ascent and preservation of power is predicated upon his or her promotion of prejudices. The demagogue deliberately influences his or her followers to feel as if they are being brutally victimized by marginalized-minority groups. This fomented indignation and hostility towards downtrodden groups is underpinned by an all-out assault on any and all facts that disprove the demagogue and his or her rhetoric. Ultimately, through propaganda and scapegoating, the demagogue is viewed by the masses (which are composed of the dominant-demographic group) as a sort of infallible, unimpeachable savior.

Democracy makes the demagogue’s abhorrent ascent not only possible, but inevitable; democracy allows the loudest, least nuanced, corrosive, and pernicious voices to penetrate the feeble minds of enough of the electorate to subsume it—the electorate—into a cult-like cancer upon the state—a cancer which is prone to rapidly metastasize—consuming the integrity of the electorate—both individually and as a whole. The human and ecological toll of such is both incalculable and unacceptable.

The mutable volition of the masses is too undisciplined and capricious to preclude the advancement and entrenchment of noxious demagogues. The masses are too easily manipulated, and for this, they should not be allowed to choose their own leaders. While the democracy experiment was noble in nature; it has proven to be an absolute failure. It is time that we turn the page and move back to a more natural order. For the vast majority of human history, we have been governed by sovereigns. A benevolent sovereign is infinitely preferable vis-à-vis a deceitful demagogue.

For a return to royal rule to succeed, the sovereign cannot be hamstrung by any governing body. There must not be elections of any kind as elections allow demagoguery to insidiously take root—even at the legislature level; therefore, all elected governing bodies should be abolished. All those who were appointed to governmental positions by elected officials should be ousted as they may have been appointed by elected officials tainted by demagoguery.

While this proposal is radical, it is rational. Our status quo system of elected governance is simply inadequate. Not only does democracy has a long history of descent into demagoguery, it is even less equipped to ward demagoguery off in the modern, information age. When falsehoods and propaganda can be so rapidly shared, the impact of such is unparalleled. This, of course, greatly increases the probability of demagogues’ ascent.

Not only would a government centered around an all-power sovereign eliminate the specter of rule by demagogues, it would also better equip the state to thrive in a rapidly changing world. For example, an all-powerful sovereign could instantly order his or her state to immediately eschew fossil fuels in favor of renewable forms of energy. A move this transformational is all but impossible in a democratic government as agents of industry are able to corruptly lobby, usually with the use of campaign contributions, elected officials. The lobbied politicians are then prone to ignore the wellbeing of their constituents as their own continued electoral success is generally their chief concern. An all-powerful sovereign would be able to immediately take advantage of situations as they arise. An all-powerful king, who is benevolent and just, would be a stabilizing force whom the state would rally around. This would unify otherwise fractious states. Most importantly, an all-powerful, unrestrained sovereign would eliminate the threat of rule by demagogues, and it would free the citizenry of the burden and responsibility of participating in a democracy. While this proposal is bold, it is simply common sense.