The fact that the phrase sounds antique should warn us of the scale
of our folly. We have lost, given away, pawned the power we once
claimed. We have ceased to be who we once were. Or at least who we
claimed and hoped to be – The People. Now who are we? The Consumer? The Unemployed. The Unwanted? ”We,
the Unwanted” does not have the same ring about it does it? And yet
that is what we are fast becoming. It is time to chose. Sit in front of
your television or computer screen and let it sooth you, until one day
you too find you have have become one of the unheard, unlamented,
Unwanted. Or reach out to others and grasp hold.
It is surely time that we re-assert what the phrase “We, The People” once meant. It is suybolic I know. But symbols are powerful. And the powerful fear them.
For too long now we have been supine, docile and cowed. There
have been sputterings of resolve when a million people took to the
streets to oppose the War in Iraq. But the rulers of the day ignored us
and ‘the people’ simply went home vaguely disquieted, perhaps a little
hurt at being ignored but mainly just confused as to what to do next –
if anything.
For decades now we have let others have the initiative, let
others define what was acceptable and legitimate. When it was never
their position to do so. This must stop.
Once, a certain people declared, “No taxation without
representation.” It was and still is a simple idea. You may not tax me
unless you represent my interests. Only those with my interests in mind
may ask me for taxes. Today that definitiion of democracy has
withered and been quietly replaced by another similar sounding but
actually radically different version – I would say perversion – of
democracy. Today we are taxed by people who represent every
interest but ours. They are still representatives but not of our
interests. Democracy has now become a kind of opera – more and more
lavish in direct proportion to its separation from ordinary people and
their lives. Every four or five years we get to chose between two teams
who represent some interest which is not ours. They may represent the
interests of bankers, or global corporations, or militarists and the
industrial complex which gets rich from their adventures, or some other
grouping within the machinery of the State, or the intersts of a
powerful global 1% – whatever interest they serve it is never yours and
mine. For those who will clamour and say the Democrats or Labour or La
Gauche represent the interests of the labour unions, WAKE UP! It’s been
decades since that was even partially true. Labour under Blair and
Brown was Thatcherism by another name and ignored a million people who
said very clearly and en masse, that the Bush/Blair war was unjust,
illegal and unwanted. The Democrats under Obama followed the same
financial and economic ideology as Bush, even chosing the same people to
run things, and was as warlike and arrogant as well. Change? Tell it to
a moron. He might believe you.
Democracy is broken. No one represents us. We are allowed
only to chose between different teams of The Entitled who, once chosen,
ignore us completely. The whole idea of a mandate has mutated.
Once that idea meant that a government could do what it had said it
would do when it was trying to win our votes. Beyond those things, it
had to consider ‘The People’. Today all parties consider that being
elected means to be handed absolute power to do whatever they feel like
doing, whatever they can ram through the tattered remains of
accountability and oversight.
Elected dictatorship in installments is what we have today. And
when each installment, no matter the different names and colours of the
teams, is almost indistinguishable from the last, what is
representative democracy if not a street parade of oversized cartoon
characters and their pantomimed arguments. Are we not amused?
If we do not speak up soon we will find when we finally do,
nothing is heard but grunting and bleating. We are, to borrow a phrase
from the brilliant Roberto Callaso, already walking through a vast
slaughter house. And those who run it have no good intent.
(Click link below to read more)
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About Me

- Judy Chaffee
- This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
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