We Lost Control

Mis-, Dis- or just Uninformed?

I was enjoying a back and forth with a friend recently, questioning the wisdom of unwaveringly hunting down an unidentifiable target of victory against a nuclear superpower, irrespective of consequences. I was also positing that I am not thrilled about my time and energy being purloined (taxed) for what I think is the unnecessary death and destruction of hundreds of thousands of human beings.

A significant portion of the value I have created as part of my one and only life on this planet is being extracted from me under the threat of force and used to buy and deploy weapons to kill and maim.

I don’t want that. I don’t like it.

I was told I should be grateful that I lived in a liberal democracy, rather than in Russia, China or North Korea (a very Western-centric point to make…the Chinese people will see that very differently!).

I pointed out that my society should be grateful to me for adding sufficient value to others so as allow the state to take an enormous chunk of that value for its own purposes!

But, this set me thinking. How did we get here. I know no-one is taught even the basic cost:benefit analysis of various governance structures at schools anymore. But how did we arrive at a position where cosy individuals, preciously pampered in their comfy professional lives, have become utterly unanchored from what it means to live in a democracy.

Now, I have my issues with democracy in and of itself and fascinating conversations follow from its critique.  But let us say for the moment that it is indeed the “least-worse” form of governance.

Fine.

But, for heavens sakes folks, that doesn’t mean you click on it and let is run itself.  Set and forget.  The clue is in the bloody name…it’s rule by the people, the demos.

Of the people, by the people for the people. You must be ACTIVE! Challenge poor decisions…and even good ones.

The mechanism for that challenge MUST exist and be meaningful.

Democracy requires that the power vests in US – the citizens who bear the consequences. We then decide which powers we are willing to delegate - on a contingent basis - to societal institutions. WE tell the government what WE want them to do.

The government is our servant. At least that was how it was meant to be.

How has everyone forgotten this? It is lazy, complacent, wilful ignorance (and I am as guilty as anyone) that has led us to this point. A point in history where we, the demos, have lost control of our governance.

Wars no-one wants. Net zero death cult. Life-stifling taxes. Medical mandates in contravention of time-honoured ethical codes. Even a redefining of what comprises the demos. Now, chillingly and tellingly, speech laws.

The lack of outcry over the latter is proof evident of how disinterested the person in the street has become in their freedom.

Seriously? You’re OK with delegating truth-seeking to the government?

Photo by Miguel A Amutio on Unsplash

20% of the UK electorate voted for what has turned out to be a landslide victory for the Labour Party.

4.9 million of the 27 million inhabitants of Australia voted for the Australian Labour Party.

In the US, where there does seem to be a discernible difference between the paltry two options, the democracy that the West wants to impose on the rest of the world via war is being showcased by a string of assassination attempts and a palace coup of the long-term dementia victim leader. Who is still nominally running the country.

The EU president is “selected” by unknown forces and then the European Council says yes or no (via a qualified majority),

So, I also want to address the fatuous stupidity underpinning the idea that because it says democracy, it is a democracy. To be a functioning democracy, it is fundamental that your vote counts. Clearly, if you are casting your tiny, little opinion among a sea of tens (in USA hundreds) of millions and for parties who all agree on 95% of what affects you directly, your well-intentioned tick means effectively zero.

Every vote counts?

No. I am sorry. It simply doesn’t. Look at the maths. That doesn’t stand up to any scrutiny whatsoever.

In a system whose whole philosophy is that the people rule themselves, the impact-absorbing distance between your say-so and the final decision-making is cosmic. Inter-galactic.

Your vote counts for nothing.

We did set and forget.

We delegated to then democratically constructed institutions but failed to monitor, control them, hold them to account. Worse, we failed to educate ourselves and our children on what that even means. Or the tools with which to do so.

People grew up thinking that it was normal to pay over a huge amount of money to a faceless bureaucracy that makes false promises on a societal level. We grew up assuming that politicians buying votes now at the expense of our children’s future was par for the course. That “policing the world” was a thing. Just wars. Government “Science”. Subsidies, tariffs, central banks, price caps, diversity targets, quangos, smart initiatives, etc, etc.

People grew up believing that, if there was no government, hospitals would not be constructed…or roads built, or rubbish collected. We delegated so much that we forgot how to look after ourselves. Or even that we can.

We became reliant.

We let that happen and the devastating truth is that those promises will be broken. Western governments have no option but to inflate away your wealth through money printing. To “means test” state pensions. To tax your wealth, your income, your property, your purchases, your investments. Your life. To make your children toil to repay those promises, those debts.

Because those promises were made by you.

That’s what it means when you “trust government”. It means you authorise them to represent you. You hand over your power of attorney for those officials to take on obligations on your behalf. To make your life decisions for you.

Each of us has limited time on this planet. What we do with that time defines us. Our actions define us.

Can we recapture sufficient agency over our lives to regain that meaning?

The abject apathy to the coordinated roll-out of Misinformation / Disinformation laws that no-one asked for suggests not.