III Democracy Discussions Chapter 9

From here to there... From Oligarchy to Democracy

Well, there's not really much of a problem for engaged and informed and well-meaning people to draw up a system for a true democracy that would function far, far more democratically than what we have, nor that big of a problem to draw up plans for a sustainable society that would be far better than the endless destruction of everything by the capitalist elite currently running things.

The big problem is - how do we get from where we are to where we want to be? As Roosevelt said many years ago, nothing happens in politics by accident. Extrapolating, it is obvious enough that we are where we are because the people running our country want it this way - and we are going backwards in so many ways rather than forwards because that is where they want us to go. And if we want to turn things around, and start becoming better, it will be because we make it happen.

One of the common proposals today is to simply withdraw from the capitalist system, start our own small communities and towns, and eventually when enough people do this, the capitalist elite will just kind of fade away through attrition. I think the germ of that idea is good, withdrawing our support from things we don't want to support, but that is all, because I think the capitalist predators will no more fade away from our society than the wolves will leave the forest if the deer just ignore them - the wolves will come a killing as long as the deer let them, and the predators will rule human society until we establish that we not they are going to run our country, and put them outside the walls of the city rather than allowing them to inhabit the ruling government system. As long as only a few people isolate themselves somewhere, the rulers don't care - as long as most people keep working, and producing the wealth they need to rule our society, and to participate in the councils of rulers in other fora, they'll leave you alone - probably a good thing for them, as people that serious about opposing the current pretend-democracy, were they living in the cities, would be agitating and causing the rulers some grief - but away on the fringes somewhere keeping to themselves with minimal interaction with the mass of compliant citizens and complete marginalisation from the corporate propaganda media most people follow, they're no threat, so why worry about them.

BUT - if the numbers of these people refusing to participate in the capitalist wealth-creation system ever reached any kind of dangerous level that actually threatened their system, by reducing the wealth output, or by setting the kind of example that more and more people started talking about as something they should be changing too, I would be very certain that the rulers would act quickly and ruthlessly to stamp their communities out and bring them back into the fold one way or another, with the 'disappearance' one way or another of the most visible and dangerous leaders, and general visible violence as a lesson to others considering just abandoning the capitalist work mills, as an example of how the 'good citizen' was expected NOT to behave, or there would be consequences.

(Actually, you can kind of see this attrition argument happening in reverse, strengthening the capitalist hegemony - most of the people aware of what is happening here, and doing serious protesting, are rooted in the 60s era, and are dying off far faster than younger people are getting clued in to what is happening, and not only that, the younger generations are ever more indoctrinated into the box world they will never even question escaping from ..)

What I think we need to do, the 'where the rubber actually hits the road' part of the revolution, to ensure everyone understands the fully democratic nature of what we are doing, to 'be the change we wish to see' as the very wise words of Gandhi tell us to do, is to work within the current system, the electoral process which includes the ridings and election rules they currently have - as I have said before, the system we have itself is, in theory, quite reasonably democratic, it has just been taken over by people using this tool for their own purposes. They control the system completely at this time, and the way we think about everything, and thus ensure that only their puppets rise to positions of any importance, but there is still an honest voting mechanism that we should be able to use to 'win' some ridings, at first, and then more, and as soon as we have a majority, then it will be time to *legally* change the system.

And note clearly, as talked about earlier, by 'working within the system' I most emphatically do NOT mean working with one of the established parties such as the NDP - all the established parties which get print or air time in the corporate media are controlled by corporate money, and getting involved with them simply means putting your own blinders and chains on, and getting into the 'rearrange the deck chairs' brigade, a complete waste of time.

What I mean is as I described earlier - **take** our democracy into **our** hands, and organise ourselves within the 'legitimate' electoral system, which is a very reasonable and democratic system in theory, so we choose, or elect, people 'of ourselves' through a process of some kind similar to what I described earlier, 100% in **our** hands, with nobody telling us what we are allowed to do or when, or establishing any other rules from above we must follow, and through this process selecting people - people who are instantly recallable if they start acting on their own without our clear instructions - who will honestly and courageously stand tall and fight the lies and looting and rule-by-intimidation-and-violence of the capitalist system from within the halls of our governments, whether provincial or federal, and if we can choose a majority of such people from across Canada, all of us working with some coordination and organisation through our own media and communications networking - and get them to Ottawa - then the Democratic Revolution will be truly underway (not finished at all, just maybe the end of the beginning, before the real fight starts - more anon).

This will not be easy, of course - but then, there is no easy way to get these usurpers out of our government, there's no easy way to get a cancer out of your body, there's no easy way for Oliver to get a bit more - the rulers have been running things their way for a long time, they are completely familiar with how to use 'the system' to maintain their power, and they control the police who keep open resistance contained, the courts we must use and the media that talks about what is happening and indeed the support of most indoctrinated citizens as noted throughout - we are indeed a small band of dissidents storming a very powerful castle, ruled by some very powerful, very ruthless, very able people, and we are going to have to be very clever and strong and determined if we are to have any small hope of prevailing.

But there are ways, if we can marshal our own greatest strength - which is democratic force of numbers.

In ridings where we have good workers and strong organisers and a receptive populace, we should be able to bring ten or fifteen, or even a few tens of thousands of voters over to our side through the 'awakening' process talked about early, voters who are fully informed, and engaged, and are so dis-enamored of the current political parties that they are ready to get themselves outside the box and choose or elect someone new, someone not aligned with the traditional party system. At this time, if we show the current MP has lost the support of a majority of the people in the riding, we can either challenge the legitimacy of the 'incumbent' in court, or, if an election is close enough, simply continue building our strength, and take the election with our independent candidate. (the court challenge route would be iffy, of course, as the oligarchs control the courts which would do their best to silence us and the media which would either simply not cover the trial or cover it very prejudicially, but if we have enough numbers, and a good lawyer who will work cheap or pro bono, and our own independent media network well-established, it would be worth doing for publicity - not only of what we are doing, but of the very obviously unethical ways in which the oligarchy will defend 'their' territory, and not only in Canada, but throughout the western world where similar struggles are taking place, to again consolidate and increase our support, and the world's awareness of the Democratic Revolution underway in Canada.)

The main, by far, point, once again is simply this - if you want Democracy, you get the hell out there and make it happen. If we want democracy more than they want their feudal system, we can have it. If they want the new feudalism really bad, and we don't really want to be bothered fighting for Democracy - well, same old same old, I guess.

Next Chapter:
Part III Chapter 10. Final Reminder: Never Forget the Enemies of Democracy or back to
Democratic Revolution Handbook- Home

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