Its true that democracy is rule by the lowest common denominator, but absolutist autocratic tyranny, the natural opposition to revolutionary democracy, will stomp unorganized, decentralized people who cannot organize a sufficient oppositional force against the established oligarchy, who have opposed any formal power structure, other than their own, for a millennia.
the love of wisdom of the ancients, with violence and warfare, deferred imperialism, for democracy. Theocrats with their vertical hierarchies, will always oppose horizontal modern alignments.