Democracy
Democracy
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 DemocracyA definition: "The
word democracy comes from the Greek words "demos", meaning people, and
"kratos" meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as "power of the
people": a way of governing which depends on the will of the people."
(Council of Europe, accessed 4 July 2025) But, as I have already written elsewhere, democracy has never really been about "power of the people". In ancient Athens, only 30% participated. Only free males. No women, no immigrants, no slaves. In modern democracies, women only got the vote about 100 years ago. Black women in the USA only got to vote in 1965. Democracy continues to be hijacked by Big Money and Evil - by "imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" (bell hooks). The Invisible Doctrine by George Monbiot and Peter Hutchison says that, "In the dominant model of representative democracy, hundreds of issues are bundled together at election, yet the vote swings on just one or two. Government then presumes consent for its entire policy platform. We don’t accept presumed consent in sex. Why accept it in politics?" So, when I read Young Europeans losing faith in democracy, poll finds (The Guardian, 4 July 2025), I want to shout:-
You are losing faith in democracy after trying a tiny sample. You are saying the cake is disgusting - when you have only ever been allowed to eat a few stale crumbs. You have never experienced the cake! You are being led down the wrong path by very powerful, very rich, very evil elites. And it is getting worse. Big Money is turning you back to survival rations = autocracy, oligarchy, fascism. You are being led to fascism and authoritarianism, as with the USA and the UK.  We have seen this before, pre-WW2 (1939-1945). So, today we seem to be in the prequel to a third world war. The difference between then and now:- (1) Pitchforks have less power than they did at the time of the French Revolution (1789-1799): "One
of the causes of the global democratic recession is the escalating
inequality of arms between governments and their people. At the time of
the French Revolution, governments feared the people, as the distance
between pikes and pitchforks was not so great. But as states developed
ever-more sophisticated weapons, their powers could no longer be
matched by those they sought to crush. In combination with facial
recognition technology, now being widely deployed in the UK among many
other nations, autonomous weapons systems, for both military and civil
use, would greatly increase the distance between state and citizen
power. This is the future we appear to be rushing towards, with
scarcely any democratic debate...
Technologies of control are ramping up while democratic rights are ramping down. We drift towards extreme political repression, driven by the demands of capital and foreign states, accelerated by automation. This is why we must protest – now, while we still can." (George Monbiot, The Guardian, posted and accessed 4 July 2025) (2) The Climate and Ecological Emergency is a complicating factor. Extinction is possible. So, as James Lovelock said, democracy may need to be put on hold - so we can act quickly in the face of massive disasters. Anyway, I repeat, we've never really tried real democracy. Perhaps the only time we have experienced democracy is in peaceful tribes.  Youth, why not fight for the right to experiment with deep democracy or something wiser and more loving? What about the embedding of citizens' assemblies deep into our systems? In the essay The Power of the Powerless, Václav Havel tells us how best to resist a totalitarian system. He calls for an "existential revolution" that goes "significantly beyond the framework of classical parliamentary democracy" and that can thus be called post-democratic. It can ‘…provide
hope of a moral reconstitution of society, which means a radical
renewal of the relationship of human beings to what I have called the
'human order,' which no political order can replace. A new experience
of being, a renewed rootedness in the universe, a newly grasped sense
of higher responsibility, a newfound inner relationship to other people
and to the human community - these factors clearly indicate the
direction in which we must go.’
This reminds me of the peaceful tribe. I call these sorts of things a 'Culture of Love' and 'Solar Culture'. If people feel powerless in modern democracies - as they seem to - then surely we/they are not living in democracies! Meanwhile, you are being hypnotised into a dystopian world. Into a horrific prison. Even off a cliff. Resist while you can.  Otherwise: "The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." (George Orwell, 1984)
We already see this in the Rich World as it continues to arm Israel, to support Israel's genocide, to be complicit in genocide. We see this in the Rich World as it ignores the Climate and Ecological Emergency. They say, "Ignore it all. It's all fine. Everything will be fine."  (Drew Sheneman; fair use, educational)
Further Quotes Marxism was, and is, nothing resembling the totalitarian bogeyman that the USSR so conveniently became. Marxism is a doctrine espousing fairness, equal opportunity, redistribution of wealth and emancipation. It aims to be fully democratic. (Dr Jan Udris, Letters, The Guardian, posted 14 October 2025, accessed 15 October 2025) Resources
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Also see:- Success for Society - Politics 10+ World Delusions - Delusion 28 - Democracy = Rulership by the People Socialism & Communism Solar Culture Culture of Love Links - Politics |
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