Kritarchy

Rule of the judges

Here is your new word: kritarchy, also known as kritocracy. This signifies the rule of the krites (Greek for judge), a word which is apparently related to the word critic.

The kritarchy or kritocracy has a lot in common with the bureaucracy. In each case, self-appointed experts decide who is fit to run for office. The people do not get to decide who their rulers will be; they only get to select from among the approved candidates.

Alternatively, the judges seize power as a super-legislature and super-executive. This usurpation of power is taking place in America, Brazil, France, Germany, Israel, and Romania, among the most recent examples that come to mind.

In America’s case, such actions are clearly unconstitutional, as a violation of the separation of powers. Incredibly, a stupid CNN journalist attempted to trap White House advisor Stephen Miller on this issue, implying that Trump should not exercise his constitutional authority as Chief Executive because of “separation of powers”. An incredulous Miller explained to the ignorant host that separation of powers means that judges cannot exercise executive authority; indeed that the US Constitution grants plenary (full, complete) power to the President and to no other to perform certain responsibilities (such as protecting the country from invasion).

We have seen in Brazil, France, and Romania that judges are preventing the people from voting for candidates of whom the judges do not approve, but who are otherwise eligible to serve. Some of the candidates in question are admirable, and others are not. However, that is irrelevant. The consequences of suppressing the people’s freedom to choose will be much worse than the perceived flaws of individual candidates.

This type of story has played out on other public stages in recent years: the Vindman outrage that the elected Commander-in-Chief President Donald Trump dared to choose a policy at odds with the “interagency consensus”; the assault on medical freedom during the pandemic; the current judicial insurrection in America.

There is always a common theme, namely: people are too stupid to run their own lives, so the self-appointed “experts” will decide how they should live, or even if they should live. This tendency is what undermines “our democracy” such as it is. As a college professor, I apparently belong to the class that believes it has a right to run everyone’s lives, and I understand well why that class is hated. I hate it too. The people who desperately wail about their limited life choices (Stephen Colbert: “We’re dying out here!”) are the ones trying to limit others’ choices.

Vive la revolution.