I know that being critical of Special Interest/Lobbyist as a threat to Democracy has been more like a theme in my recent posts. But this level of vial corruption takes us to a new level where a preacher is seeking to raise funds to buy a jet. That’s not all by the way so I would encourage to visit his site here where he’s also raising funds to buy camera equipment. But then again we need to zoom out and see the bigger picture where corruption, lobbyists/Special Interest groups have taken our Democracy for a ride – wild ride at that. An eco system where even the most sacred/personal of people’s spiritual beliefs have been turned into multibillion – if not trillion – dollar industry one that seeks to divide because to put in simple terms that’s where the profits lie. So if we try to “reverse engineer” many of today’s most controversial political/social markers; from Trump, to Mideast conflicts/political suppression, Terrorism, to economic disparities we will find the main culprits are The Gang of 4; Racism/Religious Discrimination & Corruption (RRDC) all promoting a clan culture of Us vs. Them which eventually leads to extremist ideology.
So what’s the solution you may ask. Well I don’t know for sure I would hasten to respond but I can propose some options we should think about;
- We need to recognise that this is indeed a war of ideology that is crucial to our survival as a society/nation. What this means is that we all need to move our behind off the couch and start taking some action because our lives/future depends on it. As mentioned in previous posts we need to reverse the trend that got us here and turn from Consumerism to Activism – don’t look under your feet rather look at where you’re heading.
- We need to recognise that for any genuine Democracy to survive it needs to have teeth; one that protects it from abuse and able to enforce values rather focus on rhetoric. It starts by character building from a young age (family/education are key to our national security/development – and a BIG NO to religious/cultural segregation through faith schools) and ends with institutional reform as a medium/long term objective – and there’s plenty to learn from the Trump administration. For now however there is no alternative to “structured” political activism at the grass roots level because current political structures are in my view NOT fit for purpose. People need to STOP following party badges/banners and start seeking real solutions through building pressure groups – from all levels/age groups of society – that not only complain/demonstrate but also provide pragmatic alternative solutions by promoting/developing public debates and seeking to uncover truths/find long term solutions that are based on “Compromise/Unity”. Why? Well because if we continue in our current path of indifference or if we tend to focus solely on the politics of the day or follow party lines (in their current form) we all loose because we’re wide open to exploitation – internal & external; so long as we are fixated by narrow agenda/headlines we loose sight of the fundamentals for a successful/progressive society. Our choices cannot be more stark – but these are choices we make.
- We should start protecting religious freedoms as a matter of national policy and and NOT allow religious lobbyist to infect our political eco system through political influence/corruption; I truly long for the day where terms Islamophobe/Anti-Semitism are taken offline and replaced with terms like Religious bigotry so that all religions have equal protection/single definition under the law. We also need to understand that free speech as a fundamental principal to any Democratic society should be protected from abuse by xenophobes/religious bigots that attempt to insult/divide rather than challenge/debate – but these protections on the other hand should not be allowed to be taken to extremes in preventing freedom of thought/expression or turned into a lynching match.
I think that a big part of the problems we face today as a society/nation is that we’ve become too comfortable with our Democratic credentials and took for granted our existing structures being content with merely doing a regular refresh through elections instead of allowing these structures to develop/evolve in meeting new challenges. The world around us continues to change at a fast pace and Democracy as well as our understanding of it needs space/momentum to evolve/adapt to new realities and it is up to us to ensure this constant evolution happens. We can also need to move away from rigid ideologies that resist change by challenging realities rather than pragmatic change that adapts to them.
BREXIT Micro Nugget
With the ever changing realities on the world stage; be it political conflicts, US extreme policies/trade wars – we really need a rethink of our BREXIT options. I have for long been opposed to BREXIT in favour of a reformed EU for a whole bunch of reasons. What I see now at the world stage makes me even more convinced that we need to have another serious debate and referendum about the rational of leaving the EU particularly at this moment/time. I strongly feel that the UK & the EU need each other now more than at any other time in this long relationship and we certainly we’ll be worse off if we decide to continue this exit path in this climate of political/economic uncertainty. Ideologues will continue their path towards the exit doors but we really need to re-examine the benefits/costs in an honest transparent manner away from the politics of the day because our future is more dependent on the choices we make now more than ever; and this guy seems to agree.