So, where do we go from here? How do we clean up the mess that modern democracy has become? For it's plain that, without radical change, the only foreseeable future is one of ever increasing persecution, ever increasing disaffection and ever increasing repression.
Some may say, what we need is a benevolent dictatorship. What we need is for a great man (or woman) to come along, seize power, rule over us and get us back on track. I, however, find that idea laughable. For, as Lord Acton identified, power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Benevolent dictatorship is an oxymoron.
Others will say, what we need to do is to form a new political party, dedicated to freedom, justice and good government. I think this is a dead end. It hasn't worked for the Libertarians in the USA, and it won't work anywhere else. For the most likely supporters of such a party – those disaffected with the system, the silent majority – aren't a homogeneous political community. We include all kinds of views, from the loony left to the rabid right, from the anarchist to the authoritarian, from the revolutionary to the traditionalist. All that binds us together is a common knowledge that the present system doesn't work for us. If we as a group ever gained political power, we'd never be able to agree on anything.
Indeed, I think it would be, to say the least, capricious for those of us who hate politics to take an active part in it. We can only reasonably ask people to vote for us, if the option we offer is explicitly not political.
Others will say, we can make things better by tinkering with the system. We might try, for example, proportional representation. But that still fails to address the problems of democracy – the unjust persecutions, the lies and spin, the rule of the worst, the divisions and nastiness. And however fine-tuned our tinkering, and however many safeguards we put in, the criminal-politicals will still learn to operate the controls eventually.
If you really think tinkering with the system is worth while, let me offer a suggestion for a tinker, which just might shore up the system for a little while longer. What if, instead of one man one vote, we moved to the most modern of the four ways of running a society – the shareholding model? What if your voting power was in proportion to your contribution to society? That is to say, to the excess of the taxes you have paid over the value of what you have received in return? That would have some interesting effects. It would disenfranchise, and justly so, all those that are a long-term economic drain on others – including the political classes. And it would take welfare right out of the political arena.
But I don't hold out much hope for the shareholding model either. No, I think that the failure of democracy is a signal of something bigger on the way.
I sense today, both in myself and in many of those around me, a change in attitude and way of thinking. I sense that people may be starting to break down the collectivist mentality that supports the political state, and to see themselves for what they are – individual human beings. Once they see themselves as individuals, they will see others as individuals too. And they will come to judge others as individuals – by their actions and their motives.
In particular, people will judge the political classes by their actions and motives. And that judgement will not be kind. For the three main characteristics of the political classes – bullying, theft and fraudulent lies – are widely disliked. People, in general, don't like bullies. They don't approve of liars or fraudsters. They only tolerate thieves when they themselves aren't the victims. And, when people understand what the motive of the political classes has been – a selfish desire for control – their judgement will become even less kind.
In the old fable, Hercules didn't clean out the Augean stables with a poop scoop. He thought outside the box. He used a force of nature – a river. And I think there is a lesson to be learned from that story. That is, that no-one can clean up the system of government by working inside it. To do that, it will take a force of nature – of human nature.
And there's one right there. Recall the left's hatred of the rich? For decades and even centuries, economically productive and successful people have been hated for being "rich.” Good people have been persecuted for virtuously earning an honest living. Meanwhile, those that really deserve hatred – the political classes – have fooled many people into revering instead of reviling them
But what if people came to recognize this as the perversion it is? What if their hatred was focused back on to the target it should have had in the first place? What if good people turned their emotions against the three deadly sins – bullying, theft and fraudulent lies – and their perpetrators? What if good people focused their natural contempt for the "rich" on those that deserve it – the politically rich? Imagine if the political rogues were brought to justice, and made to compensate the victims of their crimes?
Well, the economy would be a lot better, for a start. And there'd be a lot less persecution.
But the negative force of hatred of the bad, on its own, can't bring about a better world. To do that, we need positives as well. Prominent among those positives, I think, must be the ideal of good government.
Imagine governments that do only what governments are supposed to – provide law, honest police and military defence – and nothing else. Imagine non-political governments, dedicated to the good of every individual among their subscribers. Imagine good people abandoning the persecuting political states, and subscribing to real governments, which instead defend them against their persecutors. Imagine those good governments competing peacefully with each other to spread world-wide. At which point, one of the three functions of government, military defence, would become no longer necessary. At least, until the Martians arrive.
That, of course, is all in the future. And it may be a tough journey to get there. For those of us, who want change for the better, face much entrenched hostility. We face the hostility not only of the bullies, thieves and fraudsters that make up the political classes, but also of the gullible, the lazy and the dishonest that they have suckered into riding on their coat-tails. But the journey must be made. And the prize is great. The prize, for good people, is nothing less than true freedom – freedom from politics.
Even the greatest journey begins with a few small steps. The first step towards eliminating rogue governments is for people to understand that those governments are rogue, and why. And the second? Well, that's for people to understand who the rogues are.
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