by www
I present to you an interview with Naomi Klein.
Hopefully you will derive from this article some insights to motivate further thought and action.
It is evident that Canadians are better equipped to reclaim or rescue a democracy (meaning here national policies representing the interests of a majority of the political population ) fledgling or failing. That is because they have a proportional representation, and also because the channels between population and political power execution has not been turned into a plutocracy-by-proxy in the same degree as is the case in the USA.
Hopefully you will also be able to gain inspiration from the vivid exemplification of how the type of crises which are so often manufactured or used to usher in changes which are undemocratic and malign, can just as well be used to usher in changes that reclaims and strengthens democracy and popular rule.
Lastly, I want to bring to your attention a point rarely made. It is true that the election of Obama represented a people exercising their democratically enabled rule to a degree not seen in way too long. It is also true, in my opinion, that that vote represented a popular interest in change. BUT it is rarely mentioned just how much might be lost should Obama fail to fulfil the expectations which led to his election. The swamp of cynicism regarding the point of political participation an unprecedented number of people broke free from to cast the vote, will swallow the US population to a degree equally unprecedented and I predict that in that case it will take generations for the US population to break free from the bondage of lost beliefs in ANY political participation which will be a horrible fate since the once that will benefit from political passivity are those representing the opposite of the majority interests.
I not only hope Obama will deliver on his promises, I PRAY he will - not mainly because of what it was he promised but because a failure to do so will be so incredibly dangerous.
Now to the article:
Naomi Klein: The Shock Doctrine Got Shot Down in Canada
Addendum
I just wanted to add to my thoughts regarding the article about Canada.
The brewing attempt of a Canadian coalition (representing the majority of the Canadian political population) to grab power away from the Harper cabinet (representing a minority), is mirrored in the equally brewing - and fragile - preparations by the three main opposition parties in Sweden to oust the ruling coalition by forming a coalition reflecting the majority of the population. Although the center-left parties have joined together before, this is the first time that Vansterpartiet, the nowadays only party which is centered around a core of an albeit modified but yet in much essential still socialist ideas about the organization of society. It is also the only party which consistently has dared to challenge the USA and the economic theories which has been propagated from there has been allowed a seat at the table.
Coalitions are great, because they force even further representation of the people than having a representative parliament - a ruling coalition brings the representativeness into the cabinet and makes in inevitable both for the parties to give and take when it comes to the interests of the other parties, as well as for each party to "listen down" to the people they represent and make sure that those interests are those of the popular base.
IF we can see in both Canada and Sweden a power-grab by a coalition which has had to include the "bastard leftists", disowned by the mainstream political parties which in their turn has walked steadily towards the right (by accepting or having to accept neo-liberal ideas about how to distribute resources and influence which are), it will be at least a HOPE that these nations once more could prove to the world that social systems based on socialist thoughts and ideas can not only survive but thrive.
No comments:
Post a Comment