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These seemingly unrelated facts well illustrate the point I'd like to make: the world has to choose between democracy and economic prosperity. From a pragmatic point of view, it is obvious – the world, chasing after economic wellbeing, has grown out of its democratic shirt. Nominally the most advanced social system cannot cope with two (to put it in an extremely simplified way) contradictory tasks: to maintain economic sustainability and social justice.
Business – that I've choice “Apple” to stand for – knows all about efficiency. It is a condition for their survival. And if you think that the world's richest company has become what it is by playing democracy – well, you're wrong. They achieved it by forcing world's most talented engineers burn midnight oil perfecting products envisaged by their perfectionist boss; by squeezing sweat out of their suppliers in China; by suing their competitors over patents; by perpetuating creative destruction and personal tragedies in entire countries (Finland) and companies (“Nokia”) that witnessed their products and technologies getting swept off the face of the Earth. This is the bulldozer that creates assets of 450 billion US dollars, with its symbol – bitten apple – shining bright in almost everyone's home.
China knows efficiency too. The new global giant is rushing like a massive locomotive towards economic prosperity, while democracy, human rights, and social justice go up in smoke. She knows well that in order to dominate the world, efficiency is everything. She has no will nor time to play democracy.
And there's Greece, another symbol. Having been saved (?) for the n-th time, Greece is an ironic prophet of doom: the nation that gave to the world democracy in danger of becoming the first one forced to reject or lose it in order to keep its place on the economic map. Decades of comfortable living under palm trees, hiding taxes and telling lies to the EU has led the southern European country to the brink of collapse. The case of Greece clearly points towards what happens when democracy games – i.e., the poor voting with their bellies for the most generous politicians – get financed by global markets that play by business rules. Since there are other – let's say, culturally kindred – countries lining up behind (Italy, Portugal, and Spain), only the poor and the cynical can fail to see the insight staring us in the face – the world is approaching a moment of inevitable choice. Even though today, the thought of late Steve Jobs as master of the world or Nerijus Numavičius as president of Lithuania inc. seems absurd, the nearest future will make us face ever more painfully awkward choices between economic prosperity and maintaining social justice.
