by bhakta Eric Johanson

“Nowadays it is the days of vote. Any rascal, if he gets vote somehow or other, then he acquires the exalted post. That is also written in the Srimad-Bhagavatam, that in the Kali-yuga there will be no consideration who is fit to occupy the exalted post of presidentship or royal throne. Simply somehow or other, by hook and crook, he’ll occupy the seat. Therefore people are suffering. It is not… Nowadays, in democratic days, the government by the people, government for the people. So if the government is by the people, yes, you select your representative. If you are a fool, then you will select another fool. So Bhagavata says, sva-vid-varaha ustra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh. Anyone who is not a devotee, Krsna conscious devotee of God, then he may be in a exalted post, but he is praised by some people who are exactly like sva. Sva means dog, and vid-varaha means pigs who eat stool. Sva-vid-varaha. Vid-varaha. And ustra, ustra means camel. And ustra-kharaih. Khara means ass. Sva-vid-varahostra-kharaih. If a person who is not a devotee, he is praised or he is exalted, then the praisers, the persons who is praising him, he must be among these animals: dog, camel, pig and ass. So the whole population is like that, like dog, like camel, like ass and like vid-varaha, pig, the stool-eater, the whole population, at the present moment. So he must elect another big animal who is also in this category. Because he has no knowledge.” Lecture on Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.15.37 — Los Angeles, December 15, 1973

Here Srila Prabhupada is describing the fundamental flaw of what is called democracy – people trained only in bodily sense gratification are incapable of electing someone who will see to their material and spiritual well being. This means that the problems facing such a society will rarely be improved. This is now fully on display in what is lauded as the world’s greatest democracy, the United States, in regard to the Coronavirus pandemic. This is not to say that all democracies have failed in regard to this plague, it is just that the factors just described by Srila Prabhupada are now wreaking havoc in the US. The same reasons are also found in the lack of a practical US solution to the climate change crisis.