... but properly ...
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
What is wrong with politics and politicians today and why are people reluctant to vote?
Though the answer may be manifold the main reason for the apathy in most people as far as politics and politicians and elections are concerned is that most, if not indeed all, politicians, from local to national level, are just so remote and so very far removed from the people and their day-to-day life.
Some politicians, in fact, appear to actually not be living on the same planet to the rest of us, judging from the way they work, act and behave.
It is time that we, the People, took power back unto ourselves and that properly and brought politics back home, so to speak. Time to take our country back, whichever one it may be.
How do we get power from Westminster or the Capitol to the place where you and I live?
For far too long have we allowed professional politicians and allowed them to ride at will and decide what's best for us and let them treat us like infants.
As they, however, have no idea, often, of real life and the realities of real life those decisions and laws are slanted and only serve the ruling elite and the ruling class, and the only interest those people serve is their own and that of their pockets.
In recent years, in Britain, as an example, we have seen how politicians from all parties, and from central all the way down to local level, use and abuse the system and ride the gravy train.
While public service employees have been forced to accept a pay freeze for the next couple of years and were forced too agree to this at the threat of redundancies members of parliament and chief executives of local government have been awarded or have awarded themselves, as in the case of the members of parliament, pay increases from 5% to over 10% in the case of members of parliament and heads of the civil service, so far as I understand from sources.
It is time we took our country back and brought politics back home.
We must demand that the real control over parliament comes down to the people and that members become answerable directly to their (local) electorate and for the people to have the power to vote them out of office also between elections if the members do not conform to expectations and especially if they are found to ride the gravy train or otherwise screw up.
In addition to that the people must get much more control of how things are done at the local level, including elected mayors and police chiefs.
This all, however, calls for a much more local operation as far as local government is concerned including street and clock committees.
You may say that that sounds socialist of the soviet style, and it is true that some operations in the original ideals of the socialist soviets included such very local councils and committees. But it is all a case of interpretation and adaptation. Such local organizations can be used in whichever way you may wish.
One of he prerequisites for “Power to the People” is a total change of our political system into one that is totally grassroots citizen centered; one where the power is truly in the hands of the man in the street, the farmer in the field, and the woman in office, home or school, and people wherever they may be.
We must take democracy back to the grassroots level and have the country run from that position.
The time of Westminster and the Capitol must come to an end and block and street politics must replace those places, those parliaments, in everything but foreign policy operations and the defense of the realm.
There have been good examples of this and similar in the past, as we as bad ones and there are still examples around today. Clan government, as practiced by certain ethnic groups, could also form an example here, as could the village councils of Afghanistan.
There are many such examples from which we can borrow and adapt in order to make it work for us, in the West, in a slightly different setting, as is theirs.
From professional politics too people politics
We must have a complete transfer of power from the center to the grassroots, and I mean, to the grassroots, to the individuals themselves. Everyone must be a politician and be prepared to take part in the process of looking after their area and ultimately the country.
But this must be non-professional politicians, for it is the professional politicians that have caused us as individuals and as a country so much harm, from abuse of power to unnecessary wars.
Policing and Justice
As far as policing is concerned we must get away from the large county and multi-county police services and come to a local force, with an elected Sheriff – if one would like to title him or her thus – who then deputizes people into a local police force, much like the system that is used in the United States.
This sheriff should be, in the same way as in the USA, elected – on a regular basis – by the local people in the same way as a local mayor should be, and his or her responsibility would be to police according to the needs of the community.
The USA has a great example in the form of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, of Maricopa County, Arizona, and while some may disagree with his department's methods, such as Amnesty International, etc., the people of the county – aside from the criminal elements – seem to like what he is doing.
Sheriff Arpaio also seems the only Sheriff, or at least one of a very small minority, who know that the Sheriff is the ultimate law authority in the town or county and that federal agencies have no power without the Sheriff's say so.
While I have not come across a similar system anywhere else outside the USA it is nevertheless based on the old common law practice of British Law and the Shire Reeve, from which the work Sheriff stems.
The system of he local elected law chief, a Sheriff, who has a team of sworn deputies, in my opinion, is the best way for real people involvement in policing and justice.
A new kind of communities
We need a new kind of communities, sustainable communities, like the old ones we once had, where people will govern themselves and are not governed by Whitehall or the Capitol, and where local people are the people who run the affairs at a local level for the local people.
A total and utter change of government is called for. In fact what we need is a non-government.
Sustainable government
A government truly of the people, where the people govern themselves.
When the talk is about sustainable lives, sustainable living and sustainability everyone just sees things like reducing our environmental footprint, our impact on the Planet, but few look as far as politics and government.
At the time of the general election for 2010 Lord Strathclyde wrote for the Conservative Party in the Blog that Britain needed a change, a fresh start ... but no one considers the change that is really needed, not even the majority of citizens.
We need not just a change in government and a change of government but we need a complete change how government operates. It must be a government by the people, entirely, based on everything being on a voluntary basis rather than on legislation and taxation.
Taxation anyway is theft, as is the tithe.
While I am well aware, as will be most people, that a country cannot run without funds as far as roads and other public infrastructure is concerned we do not need as much money, though, as is being squandered presently.
Schools do not need to be provided by the state and it should be down to parents to educate their children, as the British law requests. Nowhere in the British Law does it state that children must attend school nor does it say that parents must send their children to a school. It states that “parents have a duty to educate their children” and nothing different.
Homeschooling is proven to be the best way for children to learn and billions of pounds, dollars, Euro, could be saved if that would be done and the school system, which we have at present, could, basically, be abolished.
The same is true also for many other “services” currently provided by the governments.
© 2010
