Does anyone really want democracy?

It is with a heavy heart that I come to the realisation that no-one (well very few people) really want democracy. Oh, there are very many people fighting for it, in name at least. Unfortunately, most of the time I see democracy defended it is simply an emotive defence for someone who doesn't want something that is being forced on them. Fair enough, as far as it goes. Except then it seems that what is really irking such people is that there is someone else that really should have something forced upon them.

This then is modern democracy - don't tell me what to do but for goodness sake tell everyone I don't like what they must do. And, I am desperately afraid that the telling others what to do is more of a priority than the not being told what to do oneself. It seems to me that there is an opporunity for the genius despot to come in and order everyone about.

Of course such a despot can't be a nutjob, nobody (well very few people) want the kind of despotism where people go 'missing' and everyone lives in fear. However, as long as everyone is prevented from enjoying themselves and everyone must behave 'seriously' then I think that the very large majority of people would grudgingly accept the new despot.

This isn't as easy as it sounds. It can't be a set of blanket rules. Each preventative regime (and there would have to be many) would have to be very carefully tailored. If anyone thought that someone else didn't mind being told what to do then it would unravel very quickly. No, every person would need to be able to look at every other person and be able to smugly think to themselves "Hah, serves them right".

This would be stable. What's a little misery when anyone you could possibly not like is also miserable? For most people (and let's be honest, especially elderly people) this is nirvana (the state not the band). Of course very young children would find this somewhat illogical but what do they know? Young children would find parliamentary debates silly so that shows what they know. They would soon be matured to understand the societal benefits of enforced averageness.

Of course there might be one person who was still happy. The despot might actually quite enjoy telling everyone what to do, but then this is a small price to pay. One might say this is just reward for delivering so much and widespread smugisfaction.