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A Vision of the FutureSelf-GovernmentPeter
Kropotkin [1921]
said:
"It appears to me that if a thoughtful and honest man were offered such a post as your representative in government, he would answer somewhat in this fashion": "You
entrust me with a task which I am unable to
fulfil. I am unacquainted with most of the
questions upon which I shall be called on to
legislate. I shall either have to work to some
extent in the dark, which will not be to your
advantage, or I shall appeal to you and summon
meetings in which you will yourselves seek to
come to an understanding on the questions at
issue, in which case my office will be
unnecessary. If you have formed an opinion and
have formulated it, and if you are anxious to
come to an understanding with others who have
also formed an opinion on the same subject,
then all you need do is to communicate with
your neighbours and send a delegate to come to
an understanding with other delegates on this
specific question; but you will certainly
reserve to yourselves the right of taking an
ultimate decision; you will not entrust your
delegate with the making of laws for you. This
is how scientists and business men act each
time that they have to come to an
agreement. approx
Out-dated
Governments
The
present methods of governing the
nations of the world are out of
date. In fact, the whole idea of
nations is out of date. We need a
complete revamp of ideas about
government. Not just change the
people, but completely change the
way we think about government.
Taking Britain as an example, we see that when the current systems of democracy were created in 1801, the population of England was about a sixth of what it is now. So there were 659 MPs for about 10 million people, being a representation ratio of about 15000 to 1. Now, there are 646 MPs, and about 60 million people giving a representation factor of about 93,000 to one. So each person's representation has reduced by around 600%. In other words, we now get about one sixth of the representation that a citizen in 1801 got. Another way of looking at this is to say that, in order to have the same level of representation that we had in 1801, we would need 3876 MPs. This is obviously ludicrous, and is absolute evidence of a need for a change. And it's the same in almost all democratic countries. As the population has increased so dramatically, then the effectiveness and fairness of a central government has reduced. What we now need is an increase in the power of local government, and a reduction in the power of central government. I propose that we should bring back something akin to the parish councils. We should have constituencies of a maximum of 500 families. These constituencies should govern themselves and have have total control over the lives of their constituents, with no interference from outside. They could provide all of their own facilities such as school, health care, pensions, police, currency, or anything which they feel that they need. If they feel that they are too small for a particular project or service, then they could negotiate with nearby constituencies to make suitable arrangements. There would be no higher level arbitrator. Full responsibility would rest at the local level. The benefits of this are enormous. Firstly, everybody would know everybody else within a constituency, so when a problem arises it would be easy to get to the source, because it would be to everyone's benefit to do so. This alone would reduce terrorism and serious crime to a minimum. It would be a sort of neighbourhood watch scheme in which everybody takes full part, and makes the decisions. The money presently spent on taxes, most of which disappears in red tape, civil servants' and MPs' salaries, waging war, and hundreds of other expenses from which the average citizen receives no benefit whatsoever, would be spent on directly benefiting the community, on projects voted for by the community. It is most likely that taxes could be reduced to zero, or at least a fraction of what is presently paid, because all wastage would be readily identified. Everybody would participate in their own government, because they would be able to understand it, and would have a real voice. There would be no need for secret services, or secrets of any kind, saving another fortune, and removing another load of confusion. We would overcome the problems created by too much power in too few hands. I would envisage an updated Internet, where there is a separate "educational channel, totally free of adverts, personal opinions and spam etc.. I see many people spending time on Permaculture, with the end result that the planet's food output is easily sufficient to feed well over six billion people.(See Bill Mollison's "Global garden" series on YouTube.) And of course we would hope for the benefits of free energy, from the hundreds of independent inventors now working around the world. I'm sure we can identify many other benefits, and I'm also sure that any disadvantages could quickly be overcome. Thomas Jefferson said: “The eyes of the virtuous all over the earth are turned with anxiety on us, as the only depositories of the sacred fire of liberty. I hope and firmly believe that the whole world will, sooner or later, feel benefit from the issue of our assertion of the rights of man. May the Declaration of Independence be to the world, what I believe it will be (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all), the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self government." In
support of a similar argument
please look at
http://www.lewrockwell.com/hein/hein194.html Albert Einstein
said: “Nationalism
is
an infantile disease. It is
the measles of mankind."
H.
L. Mencken
said:
“The most dangerous man to any
government is the man who is able to
think things out for himself,
without regard to the prevailing
superstitions and taboos. Almost
inevitably he comes to the
conclusion that the government he
lives under is dishonest, insane,
and intolerable.”
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