Now, I know what a lot of you are thinking, and I'm no mind-reader. You're wondering just how whacked I must be to come up with a crazy idea like that. Maybe it's something in the water. Maybe, and maybe not. I'm a big fan of principles and this is one that is very, very fundamental.
We may complain about our representatives in government, but we elect them. We say the system that only counts votes that are cast is fair. We agree that the minority should have the say. Do you see how quickly we get from agreeing to hey-that's-not-what-I'm-saying? The current democratic systems that are in place -- regardless of how democratic they appear on the surface -- are all rigged to promote minorities. Those who are selected to do the governing quickly come to believe that it is they who should decide. They are all charged with voting their consciences, which is fine, in principle, but if their conscience is at odd with the so-called will of the people, then what? And, what if a substantial group gets together and decides that we don't need all these freedoms anyhow because too many people don't know how to handle it. Is it OK for those elected representatives to simply imbue themselves with more authority than they should and make decisions that are no longer in the interest of those they represent? Well, that's how it works now.
For all the complaining that I hear about "government", I rarely hear the complaint that we, the citizenry, are too complacent. I don't know of an elected body that doesn't have everything that most of us would like to have: full healthcare coverage, a good salary, an excellent retirement plan even if you don't work at your job a whole lifetime, expense accounts, reduced-priced services just for you ... the list goes on. How can we with good conscience say that they deserve all this if the theory says that these people are working for us. Isn't that the idea of democracy to begin with: the elected representatives are "servants of the people"? Well, yes, that's the theory, but welcome to reality.
The mere fact that they do what they do and get away with it and all the rest of us do is complain is pretty substantial evidence in my book that we have given our power to them ... freely, willingly, knowingly. You might want to argue about that last one, of course, but if you buy into the system, if you think that the way it is all set up is fair and just and equitable, if you glorify your founding documents more than you care about your neighbors, well, then I have to agree with George Carlin: you get the government you deserve.
There are others of you who will be quick to point out that if you get too far out of line, if you question the system too directly, the authorities will be at your door. You're right. Americans, for example, have sat back and allowed the "system" to remove habeus corpus, detain citizens as terrorists on mere suspicion, to restrict freedom of speech, to establish a system in which money replaces justice and democracy, and generally to put the populace on the defensive. America, particularly in the wake of the Occupy movement, has shown that it is not adverse to using excessive force to quell peaceful dissent, and I refuse to even get started on how they are conducting their foreign policy these days. What is more, too many other governments are willing to go along, if not try out some of these shenanigans themselves.
There comes a time, however, in every one of our lives, when we have to ask ourselves how we feel about power. We can't avoid it. We have to decide how to deal with it.
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