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When Democracy Fails
Andrew Paterson—05/2002 |
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It is
very easy to assume, because every few years we
vote for our choice of government, that we live
in a democracy. After all, the definition of democracy
is a form of society in which the supreme power
is vested collectively in the people, and this
is primarily exercised by free choice of government.
But although the form of our society still seems
democratic, and although we still go through all
the same democratic rituals, there is a very worrying
trend of power migrating from the people to big
business. Democracy is eroding as our leaders,
more concerned about controlling society and pleasing
their paymasters — the corporations — turn
their backs on the interests of ordinary people. |
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 HOMAS
JEFFERSON said, "The price of liberty
is eternal vigilance." That is because those who
hunger after political power (most politicians) are
precisely those who are least capable of respecting
the principles of democracy. Every turn, every decision
of government either reinforces our democratic heritage
or erodes it, and it takes a man or woman of high principle
and incorruptibility to respect the will of the people
over personal and political ambition and gain. Unfortunately,
principle is in short supply as our politicians (many
of them ex-lawyers) abuse every ounce of responsibility
entrusted to them as they milk the system for their
own purposes, selling out the people to the highest
bidder.
Most of us are aware, either consciously or unconsciously,
how little our opinion and vote matter to our lives,
with the result that election turnouts across the Western
Nations have never been lower. Why vote when it makes
no difference which party gets in? In the United Kingdom,
the policies of the right wing Conservative Party that
gave big business the freedom to pillage society have
been continued without interruption by the left wing
Labour Party (much to the chagrin of the majority of
the electorate who thought they were voting for a change
in government). It is the same in the United States
where the difference between the Democrats and the
Republicans is purely cosmetic.
Of course, those cosmetic differences "seem" to
be all important because that is what is right in front
of our eyes. Different parties have different policies
in areas such as race relations, immigration, government
spending, taxation and the penal system, differences
that are exacerbated by a media intent on presenting
the spectacle of a clash of opposites to boost ratings.
But these areas really are red herrings to social reform,
as basic economic policy and the redistribution of
wealth are far more instrumental to society's long-term
happiness and cohesion (the richest 3 individuals in
the world are wealthier than the poorest 47 nations
combined!). This might seem an insult to a black woman
living in a predominantly white neighbourhood who may
have to deal with racism every day, but the fact is
that closing the gap between rich and poor and preventing
the corporate destruction of society will do infinitely
more for her quality of life than any amount of equal
opportunity policies. The same applies to crime: building
more prisons and increasing sentences does not reduce
crime whereas fairer economics does.
So why are basic economic policy and our monetary system
off the voting agenda? Why are we being fobbed off
with relative irrelevancies? The answer to the first
question is that one tiny but very powerful sector
of the population, consisting of the owners of the
banks and the leaders of industry, with massive control
on government decisions, is gaining so much from the
current economic system that it does not want the current
economic system changed, despite continual urgings
to do so by even orthodox economic experts. The answer
to the second question is that we are being fobbed
off with irrelevancies because it maintains the illusion
of democracy in a system that has become increasingly
undemocratic. We vote on the colour of our party flags,
we vote on the look and feel of our president or prime
minister, we vote for tiny reductions in tax or empty
promises of reform of the health services. Everywhere
we are being asked our opinion: internet polls, fax
polls, TV polls. We vote for the best goal, we vote
for which corrupt politicians to have in local government.
But nowhere do we vote for what really does make a
difference in our lives. Nowhere do we vote for what
really matters. That is the lie of current Western
democracy. Here in Europe we know the meaning of dictatorships
because we have a European Parliament of unelected
(yes you did read that right) officials passing policies
that will undemocratically define the most important
aspects of our lives. Democracy is dead.
Meanwhile, corporations, with the nod from our governments,
extend their exploitation into our schools, our children's
minds, the food we eat, own genetic code (which we
no longer own), ripping out the heart of society in
their frenzied pursuit of profit, replacing it with
the vending machine and the corporate logo. Everything
that was once sacred, God-given, has been exploited,
used, "capitalized" on, so that the few who
have get richer and richer and richer, in the name
of their freedom to exploit. And we would hate to take
away that freedom, for that would be un-democratic
and un-American!
Naturally, here in Western countries we can be thankful
that we do not live in an overt dictatorship. People
who criticize Western freedom are seen as nitpickers,
moaning minnies, individuals who should just be thankful
that we are not Palestinians or Tibetans. But this
misses an important point: erosion of democracy in "Western" countries
involves the transferral of the people's power not
so much to individuals or even governments, but to
the multinationals that are far more powerful and globally
destructive than Third World dictatorships. (Of the
top 100 economic organisations in the world, only 49
are states, the remaining 51 being corporations.) In
fact, multinationals and indeed all commercial bodies
are dictatorships whose sole aim is to maximise profit
by whatever means at their disposal.
These corporate dictatorships are almost immune to
government control because, being multinationals or
transnationals, they are immune to national law, and
there are no international controls on their cancer-like
economic growth. Governments are powerless to call
them to task as they operate beyond their boundaries,
and the attraction of their economic power means that
it is easy for them to operate a revolving door recruitment
policy with influential politicians. This gives them
the ability, along with their position to blackmail
governments into giving them ridiculous subsidies and
favourable terms with the threat of moving their operations
to other countries should they be rejected. They are
allowed to operate outside national law and policy,
allowing multi-billion dollar multinationals to literally
pay nothing in tax (so they give nothing back to society)
and extend a wealth and power base that is now able
to warp even the most staunch democracy.
So the biggest concern about the erosion of democracy
in the West is that it is allowing the most powerful
and amoral (when money is your bottom line there is
no place for morals) organizations on the planet to
accumulate untold wealth and influence. And these organizations,
in turn, are using their financial clout and power
to influence government decisions further in their
favour. Before long you literally have corporate states
defining themselves as democracies, in the true Orwellian
tradition of doublethink. Free capitalism becomes,
in many people's eyes, a prerequisite for democracy,
and pretty soon anyone who questions capitalism is
regarded as against democracy. (This is clearly not
the case as free capitalism is only one choice of a
democracy.) |
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And so we live
in a free world where our lives are entirely controlled
by the corporate state. We think we are free, and yet
we are bound in chains every bit as restricting as
those in overt dictatorships, except that ours are
invisible because we have defined our prison as the
entire world. So we do not see the walls, we do not
feel the bars, or smell the stench of restriction,
for ours is a world of freedoms: the freedom to exploit;
the freedom to control; the freedom to own; the freedom
to gag; the freedom to sue; the freedom imprison; the
freedom to put profit ahead of human life; the freedom
to pervert and destroy nature; the freedom to pollute;
the freedom to depose any government that opposes us;
the freedom to take away freedom itself. And with all
these freedoms, is it any wonder that we define ourselves
as the Free World and THE standard for democracy?
Western governments put enormous economic pressure
on Third World Countries to adopt "democratic" policies
which allow economic and therefore societal control
of these countries — a most efficient and effective
form of colonialism. And what is more, it is done in
the name of "political freedom". That is the
joke, the doublethink of Western international policy — economic
slavery is freedom. And this slavery is legally locked
in place by internal trade agreements (GATS) that effectively
block any future government from cutting the chains.
Western societies are locked in just as much as Third
World countries, but here we are given a larger helping
of the world economic pie to buy our silence. (The
crippling nature of debt takes care of protest in Third
World countries.) |
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It is very
easy to pride ourselves on our democratic choice of
government when we look back and see the failures of
the dictatorships and communist societies. Both of
these systems imprison the human spirit, and societies
based around them are like pressure cookers — sooner
or later they explode. What is concerning is that we
are unable to see that our "democracy" is turning
into a pressure cooker as well, as people find their
lives more and more controlled, restricted and intruded
on by the business sector. Economic and market freedom
does not necessarily augment our personal freedom.
Wal-Mart in the US is as powerful as it is because
of the laissez-faire attitude towards business in this
country, but the march of this massive company into
every city and town has devastated local communities,
closing down smaller local traders. The people get
a better price because of this behemoth's purchasing
power, but they also risk loosing much of their community
in the process. Society only generates so much wealth,
and when large discount stores move in, society has
to pick up the bill for the loss of jobs, the increased
crime rate and the general social malaise that they
bring. We might pay less for our goods, but we are
we are often unable to see the true rising cost to
society because those consequences are longer-term
and hidden from our view. Of course we see the general
deterioration of society, but we blame the parents,
the children, drugs, foreigners, recessions, governments,
rednecks, communists etc., before we would ever consider
blaming the large corporations that give us so much
purchasing opportunity. (Shopping is now the favourite
pastime of most young people, and shopping malls have
become the centre of social activity.) |
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The pharmaceutical
industry is another case in point. Pharmaceutical companies
are the second most powerful business sector outside
the arms industry, spending more on advertising and
promotion than any other industry, and enjoying huge
government protection and subsidy. Doctors rely on
their publications to update themselves on medical
procedures (described by Dr. Marcia Angell as similar
to relying on a beer company to teach us about alcoholism).
As any business, their raison d'être is to make
money and to maximise profit for their shareholders.
The only way to do this is to persuade doctors and
the general public that they need ever more expensive
and greater quantities of drugs (drugs for which these
companies have often paid research scientists to give
favourable research results). And they spend millions
in trying to rubbish competing natural therapies and
supplements by financing biased "independent" studies.
In Europe, they have managed to use their undemocratic
influence to persuade Brussels that health supplements
should be severely restricted.
So the general populous becomes increasingly drugged
up and less healthy (which makes them feel they need
more drugs), and the pharmaceutical industry becomes
ever more wealthy and powerful. And don't let any doctor
or research scientist try to tell you that this increase
is paralleled by equal increases in public health,
because it just isn't true. Life expectancy might be
greater today than it was in 1900, but that is due
to increased sanitation and better nutrition. Drugs
have played a negligible role, and if anything, they
are now causing many people a lot more harm than good.
(In fact, the side effects of correctly prescribed
drugs are now one of the biggest causes of death in
hospitals.) So the freedom of the pharmaceutical companies
has come at the price of the public's health and wellbeing.
People feel that they need drugs in order to be healthy,
which makes them dependent upon the pharmaceutical
industry, just as the junkie is dependent upon his
supplier. Once again, we have a situation where personal
freedom is abused by an industry that has a hugely
disproportionate influence on government. That is not
democracy. |
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Take the biotechnology
industry, which is trying to control every aspect of
our food supply. There is nothing democratically wrong
with this mandate if it is the will of the people.
But it clearly is not, as the vast majority of people
have rejected eating Frankenstein foods in poll after
poll. And yet, not only is it being forced down our
gullets, but it is even illegal to inform the people
that the food they are buying contains GMO ingredients.
Governments have huge links with wealthy industries
such as biotechnology firms — politicians often
end up on the boards of these multinationals after
their careers with huge payouts for their earlier support,
in what is clearly a conflict of interests. And now
these same companies are rushing to stake their claims
on our genetic material, they now own our gene sequences
because they were the first to map them. This gives
this industry the possibility of untold future wealth
as any researcher involving these sequences will need
to pay a royalty to the original biotechnology company
that mapped them. (It's a bit like the scientists that
first discovered white blood cells staking a claim
on all future research involving white blood cells.)
This puts power into the hands of the private sector
that severely distorts the democratic ideal. Internationally,
this will widen the income gap even further as just
about all these "gene pirates" are Western
based companies. People have become pawns in a huge
commercial machine that doesn't give a damn for democratic
rights.
All the while, whilst we are caught in this economic
machine, we are brainwashed by a media owned precisely
by those who benefit most from the status quo. And
so we think we are happy; we think we are fulfilled.
Like the emperor in his new clothes we strut down our
shopping malls, congratulating ourselves on our good
fortune to part of such opulence, lost in a world of
entertainment, titillation and consumerism. Our outrage
is skilfully directed to foreign countries, to racism,
to political parties, to football results and to those
who would wake us from our dream. Occasionally we might
feel that something is amiss, we might become depressed,
we might feel that life is futile, so we drink more
alcohol, go on a course of Prosaic, or get counselling,
so we might again feel the familiar weight of our emperor's
clothes. Of course it comes as no surprise that those
least able to cope with this insanity are often the
most psychologically well-adjusted and sane individuals
around! Theirs is the future, but for now we lock them
up for good measure, or label them as ignorant reactionaries
opposed to modernisation. |
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What is the
people's recourse? Vote in another government? Unfortunately,
that would make no difference as governments no longer
have adequate control of the corporate sector to prevent
this erosion of democracy. That is why it is hardly
surprising that so many principled individuals are
now taking to the streets in protest of this covert
dictatorship. There are few avenues left to them to
voice their dissent. And whilst it is very convenient
for governments and the mainstream media to label these
people as violent troublemakers, the fact remains that
they come from all walks of life, ordinary people out
to exercise their democratic right to protest. And
the Western governments response to these protests?
Predictably, they do not respect the democratic rights
of the people to protest because they are not democracies.
People are herded like animals by police in riot gear,
whilst a major effort is made to discourage participation
in the interests of "safety".
Whilst a very small percentage of those that have the
courage to protest may try to spark violence, the vast
majority's only crime is to want a fairer world, and
their actions are consistent with their goal of peace
and democracy. The mainstream media cannot portray
these ordinary people as ignorant troublemakers against
globalisation for long as they will find more and more
prominent people taking part in protest. Globalisation
is the process by which the world becomes aware of
each part of itself, and is able to act in unison.
This has raised standards of living because it has
allowed the spread of know-how, technology and societal
goals fundamental to better living. However, multinationals
are only one possible offshoot of this process of globalisation.
They have practiced capitalism on a global scale with
disastrous consequences. Defining globalisation as
large-scale capitalism is to fall into the trap of
defining our prison as the world: globalisation is
a lot more than trade, and is certainly an essential
process to universal democracy and fairness for all
beings on this planet. It is in the interests of those
who oppose these sorts of reforms to confuse anti-capitalists
with anti-globalists, trying to hijack globalisation
as proof that rampant capitalism works! This is nonsense. |
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So what do
we do when democracy fails? What do we do when our
votes count for nothing, when our protests fall on
deaf ears and when our purchasing options are restricted
by massive monopoly superstores, and when the public
has little exposure to unbiased information from the
mainstream media? What peaceful means are left except
to set up new social systems right now without asking
permission or support from our recalcitrant governments?
WE HAVE TO BYPASS OUR GOVERNMENTS. We need to come
together in communities that barter services, that
are self-sufficient as possible, that give minimal
tax back to those who wish to control us, cutting off
their blood supply. Economics is the key because that
is where we are most chained by the present system.
We need to work together to help each other raise our
standards of living without sacrificing our lives to
our current debt driven economy.
There are alternative money systems out there that
(such as LETTS) that are independent of the government.
It is absolutely essential that each one of us starts
joining these kinds of community (whether real or virtual)
that allows us to effectively meet a growing percentage
of each of our needs, helping us to bypass the manipulation
of our leaders. Sure, that percentage will be minimal
at first, but it will become our focus to evolve these
communities to rapidly increase this percentage. These
communities can also help educate us into becoming
freethinking individuals, teaching us about ecology,
politics, health, diet, well-being, etc. without the
continual bias that we see in the establishment. Naturally,
there will be many situations where our needs can foreseeable
only be met by society at large (for example if we
need an operation we have no choice but to visit a
hospital), but these should be minimised. Other people
seeing the success and freedom of these communities
will not hesitate to join them, for allegance does
not mean sacrifice to the old world but free choice
for the new. There is no coercion. |
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We will learn,
through these communities, the ramifications of our
purchasing power and business choices out in the world,
and so even when we do interact with society at large,
we can do so in a manner that is most beneficial to
society's long-term happiness and fulfilment, and we
will gradually learn how to withdraw our support and
our labour from the corporate machine. Our communities
(we may belong to several) become our democracy, our
society, our government. They will rapidly evolve to
meet our needs in a way and with a flexibility which
no government can ever match. What is more, we will
make them easy to replicate and customise, so that
those in other societies and countries can reap the
benefits as quickly as possible. Nothing will be written
in stone, except for the principle that the will of
the people is the will of the community. True democracy
is the antidote to the corporate takeover, and we will
learn for the first time what it is truly like to live
free from the corporate prison.
Is this a pipedream? Hardly! There are communities
being set up right now around the world by people who
realize that nobody is going to hand them democracy
on a plate, no one is going to give them permission
to have a fair and just society. There is little point
begging our governments to free us, when they themselves
are chained by the "free market". We have to
live that freedom right now because our voting system
will never be able to bring it in soon enough before
the current system has completely destroyed our planet.
Time is of the essence. Only when we realize this awful
truth — that democracy has failed — will we
have the impetus to actually create a new society for
ourselves. |
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How many times
can a man turn his head,
And pretend that he just doesn't see?
The answer my friend is blowing in the wind,
The answer is blowing in the wind. |
| Bob Dylan |
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| Andrew Paterson is an independent writer currently living in London. |
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