The Importance of Criticism

I've been wrestling for some time now, over issues like the church (which I've been blogging about) and about various political and ethical issues, especially related to the presence of systematic sin. I reject the individualistic notion that I can be holy simply by focusing on my own actions; my actions affect others, and my deliberations are important in that process. So, when I consider that some system is corrupt, what is the best course of action?

The knee-jerk response is to say that we ought to replace the system. If capitalism is bad, then let us try socialism. If democracy is bad, maybe we should be more authoritarian. If this were the case, then the best action would be to overthrow the current system (in line with moral standards). The other possible response is to say, perhaps democracy is bad, but it's not as bad as everything else, so we should stop complaining and deal with it. Why criticize if we cannot also be constructive?

The reason why is that all human systems are corrupt. So, on the one hand, democracy as run by us will always be corrupt; there will always be large blocs of voters who vote accord to mob opinion with no understanding of the issues (we academics, of course, would never do such a thing; we merely happen to have converged onto similar ideas through our enlightened intellects). But, what do we do? Any other system that we put in its place will be similarly corrupt. Maybe some systems are in the end worse than others, but simply changing the problem does not fix it.

So, if the current system is in error, but so are other possible replacements, should we simply let things be and ignore the problem? This seems to me to be the response of the person asking for a constructive response. There isn't any single response to give. What can be given, though, is the criticism of the system in which we live; we can point out the flaws, and struggle to deal with them and bring about justice in a small way. We can raise red flags and keep people from becoming complacent. In short, we can press the point that our citizenship is not in our present lives by keeping things from becoming too settled, either in the present system or in ideal changes.