Guidance for Government

Education

Guidance for Government / Education

1.Introduction

For many years I strove to be a good citizen in this supposedly participant democracy of ours. I felt I had an obligation to the brave men and woman who throughout history have made enormous sacrifices in order to improve my chances of living in a truly democratic society – an egalitarian and just society which would emerge and prevail against tyranny. Dutifully, I joined a political party with supposed functioning grassroots and a trade union with more of the same. I earnestly did the footwork that comes with the territory, giving up large chunks of my life to assist others to achieve high office. Even more earnestly I crafted policy and resolutions so that when these people achieved high office they would know what we, the lumpen footsoldiers, expected of them.

However, with the passage of time, I began to notice a curious tendency on the parts of these people we promoted to high office. Suddenly, they became “leaders” and “personalities”. Suddenly they knew more about everything than we did. Suddenly they were smarter. Suddenly they knew better than us. And successions of them began to take the liberty of telling entire branches, entire constituencies, entire regions, even entire conferences that they, the “leaders”, knew best and that they would be disregarding our guidance despite its democratic origins.

To old hands, this was apparently not surprising. To novices and initiates like myself, this was a profound insult to my intelligence, to my commitment, and to the large portions of my life devoted to the cause.

When, eventually, on the backs of a famous victory of monumental proportions, the “leaders” proved to be such a bunch rootless opportunists that I could no longer bear to be associated with them, I felt relieved.

But this couldn’t be right. I still held a nagging feeling that I had abandoned the brave men and women of history who had been tortured and killed in the cause of people like me having my say in a free and open society. Whilst I had plain, first-hand evidence that our current political processes simply throw up the donkeys most likely to abandon principle and seek personal opportunity, and that in any event none of these processes were ever intended to impinge on the real power forces at play – the underlying economics, I felt I must do something other than be a simple passive observer to the ruination of the brave men and women’s dreams.

So, here follows my advice on government if any of those donkeys should ever take the trouble to read it.