An old friend wrote to me this morning, and said:
I increasingly worry less and less about politics and politicians, and what they decide, as it generally seems to make little difference.
I found that fascinating: we got to know each other through mutual political interests, although, as I have noted, a long time ago.
It's clear our paths have been very different. He added:
I find the theatre more interesting than the outcomes nowadays. Best to sit on the sidelines and enjoy it rather than having any misheld belief that I can influence, or want to influence, anything.
Do I think he's right? No. But I'm aware he is in the majority.
And that's why Farage happens, time after time, I think.
And does that matter? I think you know the answer to that. It does, after all, only take a good person to sit by and the rest follows.
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“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
(Attributed to Edmund Burke, including by John F Kennedy in a speech in 1961)
Whoever said it, it is patently true, and represents the game-plan of extremists at both ends of the spectrum: by getting us to think “They’re all the same” they ensure we become what the great Thomas Merton called “a guilty bystander”.
(See: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/113523/conjectures-of-a-guilty-bystander-by-thomas-merton/9780385010184/)
He’s right.
Five things that show that representative democracy is not fit for purpose:
1. Brexit
2. Climate breakdown
3. Ecological breakdown
4. Growing inequality
5. The growth of fascism
Someone’s got to ask. What is the alternative to representative democracy?
I am both a victim of today’s politics and I also work with its other victims.
So politics only matters because of the harm it does at the moment. It would be nice if it mattered because it did actually improve people’s lives which I contend it does not do enough of these days.
Thus politics matters for ill or good.
I have a real problem with that indifference -‘can’t be asked/won’t make a difference’ – attitude to politics.
Looking at the numbers who turn up at the polls, your friend is not alone, and you are in a minority.
Yet all around, in daily life, the way you live, where you live, and even to a degree how long you live, is heavily dependent on political decisions made or not made by the people we elect or don’t elect to represent us.
But people can’t see the links, busy as they are with the daily job of survival.
Progress is slow, frustrating, and sometimes, as now, we go in reverse and regress. It’s precisely at times like this that a strong push must be made, that ‘good people’ as you call them must be heard and more importantly be seen to act, implement policies, resist those who’ve purposefully made the majority indifferent, because those people are in the business of reversing your freedoms, your rights. First they numb you, then then abuse you.
Climate emergency is being declared in some countries in Europe, in cities too, like Zurich (Zurich!!!) this last week. This will lead to policies, to actual decisions being implemented. It would not have happened without the disruption and lobbying of Extinction Rebellion militants and others who support them, I’m convinced of that.
The pressure will need to be kept because States will try to get away with slowing down or reversing decisions, or making shortcuts, I’m certain of that too.
But we’re moving forward, too slowly, but we are.
I don’t want to sound dramatic, but Politics is what makes humanity move forward and improve conditions in the long term. It will be what will ensure we can survive as a species for a bit longer, or not.
But It’s not remote. It’s in your street, your house, your tap water, even on your plate!
This destructive vampiric capitalism savaging developed countries and trashing developing countries, and the Earth, cannot be allowed to last.
If we stand by, it will. As simple as that.
Every one of us who isn’t fed up with Politics must reach out to others who are, and take them with us.
We need more ‘celebrities’ or comics involved, they’d get people to the polling box, since that’s who people listen to these days.