>>Both systems have obvious flaws. And either in combination or separately they have given us slavery, anti-slavery, atrocity and sacrifice for a greater good, war and peace.
Agreed. It's easy to demonize, not so easy to find something better. As Churchill had it: "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Religion seems to have been associated with some of the finer features of humanity as well- and a cynic could observe that the increasing denigration of religion in living memory is strongly associated with loss of freedom and happiness in Western society. I wonder who future generations will blame that on if we refuse to blame the usual cynical few abusive types surrounded by today's lumpen mass of couch potatoes.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1