CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY

Nozomi Hayase raises a great number of issues about the crisis of democracy in an  article in ROARmag. October 11. I want to examine the implications of some of the issues, and place them in a wider context.

The development of ‘existentialism’ as a philosophy and psychology has given rise to the assertion of individualism, and the expression of selfishness, and personal desires, needs, and wants as paramount.

Nozomi Hayase argues that the agencies of governments and corporations, in association with the media, are involved in the manipulation of individuals and their desires, needs, emotions, drives, ambitions. As a result of these actions there has been an increasing assertion of individual autonomy through the egotistical self; the existential self: what she has called the ‘empty self’. The empty self is filled by the rewards and punishments, the propaganda and projections of the agencies of control, government, manufacture, production, news, magazines, television, video.

But at the same time, the expression of existentialism, and individualism has been countered by the growing awareness of the essentials of social interaction, and community action. I want to argue that community development is as important as individual autonomy!

In the future we need to liberate ourselves from the delusion and fantasy of autonomy and social independence by re-affirming our sense of community, interdependence, social interaction. We will have to discover who we are? and what  we want? Many communities are discovering what they have to do together to gain freedom of expression, and control over  governance .

The crisis of democracy today is that voters have come to realise that many of the people they have voted to be their representatives are serving their own interests and sacrificing the electorate to corrupt and illegal agendas. The emergence of the demands for ‘real democracy’ arise from the demands to be directly involved in their governance. For these demands to be met, it will be necessary for the establishment of active communities with the skills to enact the government of their locality, as well as their country. The skills necessary will include organizing meetings, agendas, discussion, negotiation, compromise, decision-making, planning and setting priorities. A ‘real democracy’ will involve the rejection of the central powers of the State, including civil servants and military forces. However, recent events in Egypt have shown how difficult this will be! 
President Obama and the USA are taken by Nozomi as examples of the totalitarian state pursuing dangerous, illegal, corrupt, and unconstitutional agendas. The murder of citizens in Syria since 2011 reveals that a military totalitarian government  can stifle any attempts at liberation by communities.

What is the nature of power in the USA? The recent embargo of the US government’s budget and the refusal by Congress to approve the  funding of any of the government’s plans brings into question the nature of the power of the President. If the President was a dictator, he would have ordered the military forces into the Congress to arrest all Representatives and Senators. Clearly the government is not totalitarian!  It can be easily blocked by the Congress. However one has to worry about the values of the Representatives and Senators.

State of the Union

The US government is one of the members of the G 8/20/G50 groups of trading partners. They have all been subjected to the consequences of the global banking fraud as led by Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan as well as Lehmans and Royal Bank of Scotland along with a multitude of banks and hedge funds across the world. Why haven’t governments prosecuted ‘banksters’ for fraud? Whereas they have adopted ‘austerity’ strategies that in effect  punish their citizens!

The G20 and the UN Security Council and NATO have all taken global  actions to stop traitors and terrorists. The US is one of many countries, including UK, Germany, China, Russia, India, that are taking direct action to prevent terrorism.                                          

 We have to find out who are carrying out dangerous and illegal actions against their own citizens, or the citizens of other countries? Is it the elected representatives? Or the civil servants? Or the military officers? Or the security agents?

My impression from newspapers in the USA is that ‘fascism’ is alive and well in the USA. Despite the Civil Rights movement, Afro-American citizens are still discriminated against in employment and education. Native Americans are segregated into reserves and deprived of any equality of opportunity.  Migrants from Mexico and other parts of Central America are subject to human rights abuses. Many states in the USA  have passed anti-migrant laws, and place migrants in prison for minor offences. The abuse of civil liberties occurs across the US. The Governor of California recently repealed rules that prevented migrants from having driving licences, and being able to drive. Migrants in California can now drive cars, trucks, motorbikes on the public highways.

In the face of increasingly oppressive military regimes across the ‘developing world’, and the flight of refugees/migrants to the EU, the USA, the AU, Russia, the UK, Australia, Turkey, the ‘developed world’, we see a wave of  rigorous anti-migrant legislation, stopping them from seeking a better life in democratic regimes.

Finally, we may want to have a ‘free press’ whereby journalists should be able to investigate and reveal corruption and violence against citizens. But in the UK the Levenson Enquiry 2012/13 indicated that the rights of journalists to intrude into the private lives of families who have suffered tragedy and loss, such as the McCanns and the disappearance of their daughter; or individuals who are of minor interest to the public; must be carefully regulated. Evidence to the Enguiry revealed an extensive network of hacking, tapping, spying on families so as to generate enough information to create a story! In the UK, a free press has been brought into question by the behaviour of the journalists and their editors.