This is the weirdest planet I've ever been on - - -

 

How we choose our Leaders and Forms of Governance

 

When will we rid ourselves of the power parasites who claim to lead and govern for all? Those people willing and eager to climb the greasy pole of politics to reach the rewards of power, influence and enrichment.

We could choose something more sensible, Citizen Committees and Co-Operatives for example, to control the politics and policies of both government and workplace.

In the first case, why shouldn't the privileges of citizenship carry great responsibility? We make informed judgements on the fate and fortune of our fellows when called to jury service, so why not expand that to every aspect of communal life?

In the second the ownership of and profits from industry, distribution and farming would directly motivate and benefit the people who operate them.  Shares in a co-operative are held by those who produce the products or supply the services, the people who know where a company's profits can be most usefully re-invested.

This is said from the safety and privilege of a democratic state.  Whatever its faults, and there are many flaws in its voting and legal systems, the United Kingdom is such a place, where a majority vote is accepted as a verdict on potential leaders and their parties.

Is it inherent in human nature that a majority in all societies wish to be led; to be told what to think and what to do?  Without their millions of followers, and all those willing to put on uniforms and follow orders, no leader could command and control whole populations; thereby having the means to subject millions to war and destruction.

For example:

How did we get to 2022 and a singular sadist could still smash millions of lives, threaten billions and put the very survival of human life in jeopardy?

One simplistic answer - We've not been paying attention; either distracted by all the 'shiny things' on offer for our consumption or too busy working to keep ourselves and our families afloat.

Forget Child Putin chasing rats in Leningrad.

Forget Teen Putin's gang membership and KGB application.

Forget Little Thug Putin learning Judo and running with the Night Wolves.

Consider the social, political and military systems that allow him to excercise such power and privilege.  If not him, then who - - - ?

So Putin had a rough childhood and spent his youth amongst the gangs of Leningrad.  Is that any excuse?  Many people have grown up in terrible conditions and suffered such hardships but very few turn into world-altering demagogues.  Nor do they pursue the opportunities to do so.

So is he, Putin, an agent of history or a puppet of history?  Is the system that allowed his ascent to power available to all, ready to distort and corrupt anyone who travels that road?  There's no doubt that it exists above and beyond any one person and very few can distance themselves in any meaningful way, especially if they choose to pursue its glamour, privilege and wealth.

But the holders of that wealth and privilege cannot isolate themselves forever from the planet's potential ruin.

So why are so many people content to remain deeply stupid, even allowing that they have little opportunity or resources to be otherwise?  A majority that would rather die than think, or take responsibility for their birth society's way of life, and frequently do - Often in the service of leaders they have supported or enabled through ignorance and apathy. Leaders of ruling elites who for millenia have perfected the arts of engineering and maintaining those conditions.

Until very recently the experience and knowledge of how and why elites maintain control was only available by direct exposure - Whatever news or media systems existed were largely made up of stories passed on by word of mouth, shouted out in town squares or posted as proclamations that only a minority were able to read.  Excepting rare processions only citizens in capital cities could catch distant glimpses of a Royal or a Ruler passing by or staging an appearance.

Whether or not someone was born into the circles of the elite, or managed to somehow gain an entry there, the life then available doesn't offer freedom from obligations or mutual corruption.  The peer pressures can become extreme and even if eccentricity is cultivated as a shield there is almost no escape from the demands or scrutiny of those peers and the prurience of wider society.

 

Do I really think I can come up with something, an idea that no-one else ever thought of in the whole history of the world?

Is that both hubristic and hopeless?

This is just one attempt - A character quote from my novel 'Archive'.

The Alien's question:

 

“Why do so many still follow leaders who abuse and exploit both people and planet in pursuit of their personal greed and power? Why do they sign up to be pawns in their armies, willing to kill and be killed, or earn their living proudly designing and producing the weapons and machinery of oppression and death?

You tug the forelock, salute the symbols of power and shed your humanity and kindness like discarded clothing. The enemy is not the ‘other’ created by the lies, propaganda and manipulation of the sociopaths you elect to work for or elect to lead you.

The enemy is your human nature; the choosing to follow, the abdication of responsibility and the denial of respect for all people as equal citizens of the world. In the thousands of years since we spoke with Plato and Aristotle nothing significant has changed.”

 

Well, that's not quite true - - -

Finally, for now, a more recent thought - 15 August 2023

Until a majority, primarily men, can truthfully say to their leadership:

"I will not fight your war."

"I will not support your Right to Rule."

"I do not recognise your ascendency over my life."

We will not save this Planet and may not survive as a civilisation or even a species.