Are we living in a fake democracy?

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Please see that question as a rhetorical one as the answer is not only yes, yes, and yes, but that we have nowhere, and I repeat and mean nowhere, democracy. Not in a single country of the world at this present moment.

Being permitted to vote every four or five years for the next captain and crew of the ship only to have it continue on the same course towards the abyss is not democracy. The truth of the matter is that we are not even living in a fake democracy; we do not live in any democracy at all.

As Mark Twain said, if voting would make any difference they would make it illegal. And as they have not made it illegal in all those years it must mean that it does not make an iota of a difference.

The fact is that not a single country that claims to be democratic and have democracy is and has nothing of the kind. They who claim that and they who believe that have no idea what democracy actually means in reality.

With every year that passes, another corrupt politician or political scheme is exposed. With increasingly right-wing political parties serving the interests of capitalism over the basic humanitarian needs of the people, is it possible that our system, for democratic it is not, is rigged against the majority in favor of an elite minority? I think the answer here is also a very loud and definite yes.

We only need to look at the European Union and especially with regards to the way they are dealing with Greece. Predominately the reason for having made it is difficult as possible for the Greek government under Syriza is that the great majority of Euro-Zone member states wish to remove the radical left Syriza from power in Athens.

Other methods of the EU are also more than undemocratic, even in the way democracy is seem by most at the present time, in that they, if there has to be, in a country, a referendum will, should it be a negative outcome, as in Ireland with regards to the Lisbon Treaty, force the member state to keep holding a referendum until the outcome is a positive one. If people still believe that we have democracy anywhere then they must be rather daft.

Now, let us look what democracy actually means. It means “the people govern themselves” as the word democracy comes from the Greek “demos” which has two meanings, in the same way that the second part of which the word is made up, “kratos”, has a second meaning. “Demos” means either “the people” or “the village” and “kratos” means either “govern themselves” or “pulls the cart itself”. So it is either “the people govern themselves” or “the village pulls the cart itself”. In both cases it is the people who do the governing, if you get the meaning.

And now someone show me any country where such democracy exists, where the people actually govern themselves. Such a self-government of the people also means that there is not state. The state and its apparatus are diametrically opposed to true democracy and it is this that we need to understand before we can even look at establishing democracy.

Democracy came from the village and to the village it must return, I wrote a while back, and this because true democracy can only work in small groups, in the village or the city block, which must become the village in the city. You can read my articles on this subject of democracy needing to return to the village here and here.

© 2017

The village of the city block

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Upon reading the headline I am sure some folks will think that I probably have lost it as most will associate the village with the countryside and rural idyll. 

However, a properly designed city – or redesigned one – can create the village, even in an apartment block.

In fact, this is exactly what must be done and each of those village have to be self-governing and self-reliant, being interdependent but also independent, running their own affairs. 

In some places such villages have already been created even in apartment buildings where the lower floors are businesses and the upper ones are dwellings, with the balconies and green spaces gardens – in some instances even the roofs – for the growing of food for the residents of this “village”.

Some of the old housing estates in Britain, in their design, would make for great little villages where the central courtyard just asks to be made into a community garden where food for all could be grown by all. 

Every town and city has grown out of the village or villages and, in order for us to get back to a proper society and way of living, the village has to return into the towns and cities, street by street and block by block. Every block can be a self-governing and self-sustaining village within the greater unity. 

Growing the food needed, at least to the great extent is also possible in such environments despite the fact that many may think it not so. Paris, until just after World War One was almost self-sufficient in food due to the market gardens (and farms) within the city and just outside the city walls. And, if we go without too much meat or without meat altogether then all our food can be grown, almost, locally. 

Villages of this nature also do away with the need for commuting as it is a case of walking down the stairs to the workshops or stores (or office) where one works (or just to the next village). Though the latter would be rather the exception than the norm.

The industry in those villages will no longer be of the kind that we have grown used to that produce for a global market using large machines and needing lots of energy but the market will, predominately, be the village or the neighboring ones within the city or town and not some foreign country. 

Utopian this may sound but doing it we must in order for sanity to be brought back into this world and into our lives and for a new and better society than what we have been dragged into by the “elite”. 

Schools, kindergartens and everything else will be within the same block and everyone will, once again, look out for each other, and this will come about simply more or less automatically as that is our nature. Human beings are not, necessarily, competitive but like to work together and cooperate with one another. Well, most of them most of the time, and when the right environment is given it will be more often than not. A village environment, be this in the countryside or elsewhere, with 150 souls or thereabouts, being the maximum number, this interaction comes more or less automatically. 

The downfall of the Hippie communes, who tried something similar by way of co-housing in some location, whether an old village or in a building, was that often they got too big or more often than not there was a “leader” who took upon himself the wrong kind of authority. However, learning from such mistakes is possible and there are, on the other hand, also tried and tested methods that can be adopted and adapted. 

We cannot, however, wait for the power-that-be, as they currently are, to come along and do those things for us and create this new society. They are incapable of doing so and neither is it in their interest to do so. So, it is up to us to create the kind of society or societies that we want so that they are ready when they are needed to replace the old structures and therefore we must begin with the creation of the new about yesterday.

© 2015

The village and Nature have had the answers all along

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The personal revolution is the realization that the village and Nature have had the answers all along. We must, therefore, turn to our community and the great Earth for sustenance and knowledge.

We must, once again, become fallible and human again by living dangerously and stepping off of the assembly lines of unnatural life before it is too late.

The simple things in life are the greatest gifts. They are all there waiting for us to realize their value and partake in their blessings. We do not need to change anything, except ourselves.

Nature is the supreme cradle of life, and must be protected and treated with the highest respect and care. We must have clean air and water, and beautiful natural foods for everyone, everywhere.

We must cultivate beautiful spaces, where communities and families are free to come together to share and enjoy the bounty of earth. Above all all of us deserve real freedom, but to have real freedom, we must be wild and free yourself.

It means and will mean changing the system of exploitation of man and Planet and reconnect with the Planet and the people around us. We must create working local communities again and manage ourselves, away from government interference. In fact, we must abolish the state altogether and start a fresh, learning from the mistakes of the past.

Democracy – proper participatory democracy – is not possible in large groups or communities, let alone nation states or federation of states, and thus we must return to clan and tribal level, and the village of the size that it used to be in the days of old, before villages became dormitory places for city commuters to live, is a size that just about would have worked, before the advent of the 20th century. Thus, in order to free ourselves from the way things are in this current world, we must return to the village and work everything on a village level.

The village, in times past, was the center of everything. Almost everything was made locally with but a few “essentials” being traded from further afield. Nowadays almost nothing is produced locally, not even in the country, but comes from abroad. Even local produce cannot be sold – legally, in most cases – direct to the local people. It is sent far away to the wholesale markets from where even the local greengrocer has to get his produce instead of from local farmers and growers.

People who have surplus from their own little plots and their own hens and such are not permitted to sell any of this to neighbors without the appropriate government license – which means interference no end to obtain and maintain – and even the bartering of such produce is frowned upon by the powers-that-be and this again points to the need for a change of system.

In fact, everything needs to be brought down to village level for us to be able to live a sustainable life and also a fulfilled life. Life must return to the village level – and village can mean a number of things here and refers more to size of are then anything else – and that includes work also and people will govern themselves and look after themselves and each other and that state must be abolished once and for all.

© 2013