87 Allen Park Road

                                                     Stillorgan

                                                                                                          Co. Dublin

                                                                                                          Ph:         (01)288 7651

                                                                                                          Fax:       (01)288 7228

The Director

The Democracy Commission

25 South Frederick Street

Dublin 2

Dear Director

Thank you for your invitation to submit my views. Please accept my apology for this late submission. It is my belief that Democracy is failing the Western World. There is too much emphysis on making money and not enough on the protection of customs, religious practise etc.; these after all moulded the people of the western world. This is resulting in a complete wipe-out off our nation, race, European civilisation etc.

In the western world, the demand for consumer products, from jeans to cars is falling with the collapsing birth-rate. In the More Developed Areas of the world the fertility rate in 1960 was 2.68, and 1.57 in 2000, i.e. a drop of 41%, or the birth-rate was 71% more forty years ago, as per United Nations Population Division. Annual consumer demand (purchasing power of lost youth) in the EU 15 countries is affected by Euro 444bn, rising to Euro 888bn in twenty years time, per Mayo Association Yearbook 2001. Compare this with the once off $100bn cost of the USA invasion of Iraq.

There were 30% more children in Irish National schools twenty years ago. An eight year cycle showing a drop of 125,000 children in our under populated little isle. We worry about 9/11. But not a whimper is heard about the falling birth rate because an immediate explosion does not accompany it. Our present Irish Democratic Government, in the absence of a hostile power, famine, or emigration, is lording over a situation where the Irish Diaspora (home and away) has lost nearly 250,000 youth over the past twenty-four years! This is sometimes regarded as progress by our modern democracy.

Modern Democracies are focussing on the ‘Aged Time Bomb’. The fault appears to be that people are getting older and living longer. Emphysis is on Pensions to look after the elderly, money is seen as an end in itself. Where are the workers and the purchasers of goods to come from? Who will pay the Dividends to the old? It is a grave sign of the present generation that they do not give a damn on how their grandchildren will exist when they grow old.

Our Democracy is severely deficient of rational thought when it cannot look maturely at the reverse domino-like birth rate. Instead, we expect the rest of the world to suit our morbid mode of thought which is the self-destruction of all great customs, beliefs handed down through the ages.

A knowledge of history shows that civilisations with falling birth rates are doomed e.g. the fall of the Roman Empire; nearer home we had the vanishing of tens of thousands of Protestants from the border areas during the 1970s; the more populous Castellans outed the Moors from Andulucia in the 15^th Century. 9/11 is a stone thrown through the window of the Western World. The Separation of Church and State that seems to be the hang-up of all present day democracies is a recipe for continual disaster. Religion in essence puts the community and its continuance before the individual.

Dictatorship, ordered lives from Government down, is the result of present lifestyle choices. Ironically this results in a far more restrictive regime for the individual than a balanced religious state would ever impose on its citizens. One instance is that children are getting fatter because both parents are working and can’t give adequate attention to the physical needs of the few children that they have; the knee jerk reaction is to close down junk food outlets. Life is great now, but it is getting very restrictive and will be  ‘hell’ for our grandchildren! We are obsessed with protecting the living individuals resulting in the restriction of movement e.g. speeding, smoking, eating etc. We are becoming a bullied society and will be weak in standing up to future aggressors!

The clogging up of the Internet with junk mail for the purchase of Viagra, all sorts of pornography etc is a symptom of the breakdown of society. The junk mail in ALL cases is supported by the present democratic pillars of society –The Banks, Credit Card issuers etc. Money wins the day against morality. The Internet is a microcosm of the anarchy that the real world in ignoring religious guidance will shortly be experiencing. We will not know whether we are on our head or heels!

A cutting from the Western People, April 2, 2003 newspaper is enclosed. I could quote Plato, churchmen etc but prefer to tell it like it is and not what it should be. We have first to recognise the problem before we solve it. Present day Democracy does not want to see any problem. Democracy is failing society! It is not solely a Democratic failure but one of complete ignorance of man’s continual search and need of a superior being and the separation of this from earthly government. However, modern Democracy is ignoring the teaching of religion, which in any society is really a template on how a society should live in order to live from generation to generation, pass on its beliefs, custom etc. By sacrificing our lineage, we are elimination our entire nation. We are now hijacking the sacrifices of our ancestors for a selfish gain for our generation.

Ironically, as I write this, our state owned theatre The Abbey, is staging a production of a near two and half thousand-year-old play by Sophocles. The sad thing is that our so-called advanced democratic society is too smug and self assured to heed the message!

I’ll understand if you throw this in the bin because it is late

Yours sincerely

______________

John F Higgins