I think the Iraq "war" showed up democracy to be the sham that it is. Over a million marched in London to protest, and Blair blithely ignored them with impunity. Such are the fruits of an electoral system which enables a government to achieve a 200-odd seat majority, effectively short-circuiting the "democratic" procedure.
As anyone who has read Alfred Korzybski will know, there is usually a gulf of difference between a word and the reality of what the word represents - the word is not the thing. We do not have "democracy" in the UK - we have an elected dictatorship. Democracy is purported to be founded on the freedom of the individual. In practise, the state protects nothing except the freedom to make money. That was the real threat posed by Communism during the Cold War. The influence of Gordon Brown over the last decade has been to define a persons worth by their economic productiveness, hence the creeping demonisation of the unemployed, benefit "cheats", those who live in council houses (soon to be a thing of the past), and economic migrants. We are only behind the US in having one of the most politically divided, viciously intolerant, easily manipulated, crass and craven population in the world. The government, and the civil service they have cynically politicised, persistently feed the tabloids with hate propaganda which the "Great British Public" enthusiastically wolf down like a dog eating it's own faeces. You only need look to America to see a country hoplessly divided along abstract and artificial lines of "liberal" and "conservative", whilst the politicians and lobbyists reap the rewards yielded up by a people so distracted by self-indulgent internecine squabbling they cannot see that they are already divided and thoroughly conquered.
While years of passive resistance to the Poll Tax such as non-payment and demonstration resulted in nothing, tens of thousands of people smashing Trafalgar Square to bits did achieve something. As far as I'm concerned, those who wage aggressive war - insulated by many degrees of bureaucracy though they may be - have forfeited the right to peaceful debate. I have seen nothing to indicate that they regard civilised discourse and protest as anything but weak and contemptible. They shamelessly exploit a system that rewards those who seek power, from the town council to the Cabinet, and regard manipulation of society as an end in itself. They are scum.
As a last word of warning - it is a popular assumption that if Jews and gypsies aren't being shot in the street or liquidated in death camps then we cannot be living in a police state. The new totalitarianism has learned from history, and will not rely on such crude methods in the dark future we are now beginning to enter. New scapegoats have been found, exploiting blind spots in the media and public eye, and technology has enabled them to leave behind the overtly oppresive "papers please" methodology.
Take my word for it: even if we do not exist in a police state now, we have constructed the techno-bureaucratic apparatus that makes its future existence not just likely, but inevitable. And we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Do I have a better way? Not sure, but here's a start:
Ban The Sun, The Daily Record, The Mirror, The Daily Mail, Telegraph and any other paper in collusion with the security services or otherwise used as a mouthpiece for government disinformation or for organising hate, and turn their offices into low-cost housing or hostels for the homeless.
Outlaw all political parties and select all elected officials, MPs, councillors, etc at random from the electoral register.
Get out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Now.
Repeal all Firearms acts from 1968 onwards and their amendments.
Rip out every CCTV camera in the country without exception.
Disband the Security Service (MI5) and SIS (MI6).
Get the police out of their self-indulgent and unecessary proto-paramilitary black uniforms and back into the navy blue serge outfits that served just fine for 80 odd years.
Disband the Scottish "Parliament" and Welsh Assembly, dynamite the buildings, and use them for aggregate in low-cost housing - not poncey apartments for "young professionals" who even then can't afford the sodding things.
Revoke our status as a supplicant state of the USA, abandon the bogus "War on Terror, tell them to get their poxy planes and all other nuke-magnets out of our countryside, turn Menworth Hill into a new-age kibbutz, and generally put over the message that we have repaid our war debts many times over, duuuuude.
Reopen the coal mines, steelworks, shipyard, etc. if only to provide a better prospect for young people than working in a call centre or other nameless component of the so-called "service industries". Subsidise as necessary as a social investment.
Generally turn the clock back to 1910.
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