Is democracy defunct?

Metamoderna framed it this way:

"The question is not 'should we have massive and extensive brain­washing of millions?'—we already do, and we probably must: Mo­d­ern soc­iety relies upon an educational system, and all societies rely upon shared narra­tives and intricate coordination of people’s perspectives and streams-of-action. Rather, the question is, 'should this underlying theory of everything be brought under contin­uous, ex­plicit, democratic scrutiny, or should it re­main beyond our reach in terms of democratic governance'?"

The first option: Continuous democratic scrutiny. However we need better 'brainwashing' via education of various sorts. The democratic ideal is that individuals are taught the skills (like critical thinking) to be capable of responsible citizenship. But that is far from the case. It comes to down to those best at persuasive framing to influence the majority of voters.

And of course development always plays into the picture. Not all voters (probably few) are capable of the sort of cognitive capacity to see big pictures. So again it's who can frame and influence the best across such a variety of perspectives to reach the majority.

I guarantee you that selling integral or MM models to big business will not do the trick, as the latter's agenda is part of the problem. And selling the models to those so disposed aren't enough to make a difference electorally. We need to learn framing across the spectrum if we want to maintain a democracy, or even have one.

I know, some in this movement are convinced that the creamy elite should be leading the way and deciding for all of us because they know what's best (apparently the 2nd option). That we are evolving beyond democracy into what exactly? I'd agree we are evolving but that next stage is the collaborative commons, and its agenda is a better form of social democracy.

PS: See "From capitalism to the collaborative commons."