Implementing Real Democracy

As the post ‘The Fallacy of Democracy’ discussed, the current form of government we call ‘democracy’ is deeply flawed to the point where it barely approaches meeting its own meaning – rule by the people. The Empire will always win, as no candidate proposing real change would ever be able to credibly run for any office or would be stopped by the elite. So how can we ever achieve a real democracy with people deciding their own futures, and how can this happen despite the overpowering nature of the current system? To answer this it’s necessary to analyse that current system and how it arose.

To put in the simplest manner possible, our governments only exist in order to stop the poor murdering the rich, the slaves killing their masters. If there was no government or official militia (police or armed forces), the huge number of exploited people would no doubt rise up and revolt and demand equality. To stop this from happening, from the very beginning the masters hired and formed militias with their stolen wealth, with which they kept the slaves orderly with the fear of these militias. This is how governments and nation-states start, as the militia and mediator between masters and slaves.

Eventually, as wealth became ever more concentrated by the rich, the governments make concessions to pacify the poor, such as social reforms, the welfare state, 8 hour days etc. Although seemingly revolutionary, these only serve to capture some of the crumbs from the table of rich to distribute to the poor. After a significant amount of time, the people even demand a say in how the government is run. This was a difficult crisis for the elite to manage, but one that was solved very cleverly – the people could vote for a few centralised ‘parties’, whose existence is only enabled with the permission and approval of the elite. This way it seems we have a democracy, yet in fact have very little say in the way things change. Candidate X may tend towards more concessions for the poor, candidate Y will favour concessions for the elite. The pendulum swings endlessly between the two, always ensuring in the long-term the middle ground where just enough wealth is sacrificed by the elite to pacify the poor but not too much so as to prevent the growth of their own fortunes.

With the odds so stacked against us in the current system, we have to create a new system in which to rewild in. But how do we avoid the mistakes of the past and lay to rest the hierarchical model of government?

It’s all a matter of scale. Beyond a certain number of people in a group (it’s been found to be around 200 people in many studies) it becomes impossible to know everyone in the group personally. As a result, in order for some sort of order to develop in decision making some sort of hierarchy forms to unify that large group. Unless this occurs on the basis of smaller sub-groups and delegation, this is the first step down a slippery road to domination and slavery based system of organising ourselves. An egalitarian society based on the unified group model will inevitably succumb to authoritarianism – every republic, however noble its first principles, will slip towards fascism as time passes.

The alternative is the tribe model, the model which has lasted for hundreds and thousands of years for many societies even today. In a tribe setting, each group will be below 200 people and so will contain very little hierarchy. A representative/facilitator character exists to co-ordinate the group in coming to communal decisions, and also in some areas acts as a delegate to a larger confederacy. In this ‘federation’ each group maintains its identity but could co-operate with neighbouring groups without being unified with them. This again serves to avoid hierarchy as much as possible. There is no core armed group acting as an enforcing militia – the entire group enforces decisions reached amongst itself. And most importantly there is equality, no persons become rich at the expense of others. This is the core principle to the continued existence of this system, and is why many tribes collapse when they come in contact with civilisation, as this foundation stone is infected and destroyed by our ego-based way of thinking.

How can we retribalise now though? It seems impossible to return to this way of living so far down the road of civilisation, and questions of population density and co-ordination of all these groups arise. Although forming a tribe seems like a difficult proposition, the same concept is at work when many people speak of recreating communities and community based living. However one might want to term it, small groups concerned with the local area they occupy are at the core of retribalising and rewilding. These communities can be as simple as a local residents association, a gardening group or similar. As long as it’s local and small, it is sowing the seeds for a new way of organising ourselves. As the economic, resource and ecological crisis begin to hit, it is our job to get these groups to take an ever increasing interest and duty in caring and caretaking for its local area. If many small communities do this, a network can form to take care of our own needs without relying on the current system and its government so much.

So here’s how to begin the implementation of real democracy: see governments for what they really are – mechanisms to keep us in our place; join and form small, local groups in your area with a concern for that area; create a group which for example takes turns to give a Permaculture makeover to each of your gardens and local area and swaps seeds, tools etc.; network with other similar groups and encourage their development; and finally consider alternative economies to support these new networks. This is a new and untested plan, but could eventually lead to the emergence of a completely different way for people to organise themselves outside of the hierarchical/slave system – a true democracy as practiced for hundreds of generations before civilisation.