Materialism and Democracy

Democracy, which means “rule of the people” is a political government

carried out directly by people or by means of elected representatives of
the people. In Romania, I think that there is a false democracy, because
beyond the image of the people as the rulers, is the truth that they can’t
do anything without the government and almost all the time their ideas
won’t coincide with it. On the other hand, materialism is absolutely
present in this country.

First of all, the concept of democracy isn’t understood by the citizens.

We often hear cases in which, for example, two or more persons fight
because one of them talked inappropriately and insulted the other, and
when asked why did he do that, the answer is “It’s a free country, it’s
democracy, this is my opinion and I can do whatever I want!”. Well, this
is totally wrong. Democracy indeed means that you are free to state
your opinion, but without bothering and insulting the others. Of course
you can do a lot of bad things. You can kill, but this doesn’t mean it’s
democracy and that you have to do so. This fact comes under morality
and it should be applied in all situations, whether if there is democracy
or not. You can do anything you want, but without crossing the barrier
of moral and common sense.

Then, materialism is very strongly applied in Romania. The most

valuable things are considered to be the material ones, such as money,
cars, houses. The more of these you have, the more respected you are.
People forgot to care about their own families, about friendships, about
feelings, thinking that they can even buy these things with money.
Romanians should understand that properties aren’t everything and
that there are lots of other things that contribute importantly to our
happiness.

De Tocqueville, in his comparison about materialism between Europe

and America, states that American workers thought that by working
hard they would make the money necessary to enjoy luxury, while in
Europe “nobody cared about making money”. The fact is, in Romania
they care a lot about making money and, unfortunately, not through
hard work. Applying the democracy about which we discussed earlier,
Romanians try to produce fortunes by stealing and cheating.
In the end, the combination of materialism and a badly understood
democracy make this country the way that it is. It is said that Romania
is a poor country, but I don’t think that this is true. In my opinion,
Romania could be a better country if the money was in the right hands
and if people would try to understand that they have to be united and
help each other and that you have indeed to work hard and honest for
everything you want to obtain.