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Living in western society, we have a very poor understanding of what true democracy is. We have a wide range of rights and freedoms, yet we still do not feel connected with our governments. In Britain we vote more because we feel we have to as opposed to feeling as if we have the power to make a change to our society. Real democracy comes from the power of the people, in western countries we are not the ones holding the power. We are led by the media and herded into voting for one party or another. As a result, we end up with a political elite based on massively expensive election campaigns paid for by business interests. Despite their rhetoric, our leaders do not rule the countries for the people, they rule the countries for businesses. This can be said of all capitalist countries, and this is not democracy. This is not freedom.

Big business is here to stay, so we are told. Those who own media companies essentially control what people think by controlling the information which is broadcast as news and therefore taken as gospel by those watching. And so the owner of a media company can start a smear campaign against any politician or political group who has views which offend the owner. The rich and powerful, who don't really like the idea of social power as they feel it threatens their wealth and status, can easily destroy the reputation of anyone who is trying to get elected. This has happened for decades, it happens all over the world and it destroys the concept of democracy by putting power into the hands of people under false pretenses. Evidence of this can be seen around any major election in any country, news groups instantly abandon any concept of being non partisan and take very distinct sides. Often, however, it doesn't matter as the major political parties have the interests of big business at heart so the interests of the people never really get much chance. Of course, when you try and tell people this they don't believe you, most are easily fooled by the rhetoric of the politicians backed by the all powerful media. We only have to look at the relatively recent failed coup in Venezuela which was backed both by the Venezuelan and US media as well as by the US government to know that democracy itself, and so the freedom that goes along with it, is not a primary concern of those who tell us which parties we should vote for. Thankfully for the people of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez was not ousted from his democratically elected position

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