Quote: “The problem in Europe is not a lunatic fringe but a lunatic mainstream ever more estranged from its voters”.

This time it was Mark Steyn who got me going with the above succinct ending to one of his articles in MACLEANS (thank God there are still some readable publications in Canada) see http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/06/18/why-the-fascists-are-winning-in-europe.

This is a tell-tale article concerning the European parliamentary mess resulting from its last election, (just a bit more of a mangle than in North-America) – and one could venture to refer to it politely as “the effluent of democracy finally hits the proverbial fan”.

And still we continue to natter about politics or bury our heads in the sand, (similar to sleepwalking) – when it should be obvious that democracy cannot resolve intricate problems, i.e. according to the law that ‘a problem cannot be resolved with the same consciousness as that which created it in the first place’. So in essence it is a phantom problem, i.e. it doesn’t exist on its own accord and is entirely due to notions that evolved fiction-like out of the partisan state. Root issues used to be dealt with by tribal councils, but when such councils are succeeded or superseded by bureaucratic state functionaries under partisan voter guidelines, unresolved conflict is the natural consequence. We just delude ourselves by the thought that our various internal struggles for control have a more essential basis - when in fact it all boils down to unresolvable conflicts due to system hemorrhage. Sadly, democracy – at least as we know it – is dysfunctional !

Such a statement will be followed immediately by the shout “how can you attack a self-evident truth?” This outcry will first be trumpeted by the media which is beholden to the system, and secondly followed by the voter who is used to the existing paradigm and is just not ready to even consider a possible alternative. And all this while we have an unimaginably successful western country as a positive example for just such an alternative, in fact the country with one of the longest lasting continuous governmental system in modern history – Switzerland! This country has a non-adversarial decentralized governmental structure and the political parties have little power as the country is mostly guided by the highly influential professional associations that function in a similar manner to the old guilds. This is a country with one of the highest standards of living, a country who since its inception has never fought a war, a country that many people tend to vacation in – and yet it is talked about by very few people in a political context.

Why is that ? I don’t have the exact answer to that question, but it is surely rooted in our psychological avoidance nature, perhaps nurtured by our political class. But there comes a time – or sooner or later there will come a time – when we can no longer afford to neglect our own madness and/or the madness of our self-centered politicians (aka lawyers). But in order to start the inquiry we need a committed group of individuals willing to assist their country to climb out of its morass – not in order to create a revolution, but in order to be ready with a new structure to be put in place if and when the inevitable revolution will take place.

Those of you who are familiar with the science of System Dynamics, (as taught at MIT and several other universities), will no doubt be familiar with the underlying principles of natural system change and to those my thoughts will not be entirely strange – to everyone else I shall ask for forgiveness, either for having shattered their illusions or for having prematurely awakened them from their somnambulistic state.

Highway robbery …..

At least that is what David Warren calls the Federal Government’s bailout plan for GM and Chrysler – and blaming our gutless Conservative Party as the primary culprit -see http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/

Well, if it were only that simple! I have no dispute with David’s essential assumption, although calling it “highway robbery” is incorrect because such action would require the intention to do just that (either openly or surreptitiously) while the intention is here to save the jobs of the employees – however misguided the whole concept may be. (No doubt David has a point with respect to the many MPs covering their behinds by supporting this plan – this being a natural outcome of psychological default in a voter democracy – as can also be seen in the behaviour of liberal politicians in the EU with respect to the modern demographic pressures from Islamist constituencies. But I think that this is more of an assisting nature rather then the primary cause).

No specific group can be blamed for the direction our government is so unwisely embarking on in this case, particularly as we are just walking in the footsteps of our big neighbour to the south (not that this alone would give it greater legitimacy but it underlines the tremendous pressures that are at work within our so-called democratic system).

And that brings me again to my favourite subject – the malfunction or our governmental system per se. It is here the problem lies. If our elected guardians were not beholden to the voters and in fact were not beholden to any specific parties we may not be in this mess to begin with but most certainly would not have been tempted or cajoled into such a ridiculous bailout plan. If our guardians were instead appointed from the country’s professional guilds they might have had a completely different outlook on our economic as well as our political affairs – nor could they have been exposed to undue pressure from voting constituencies.

Now that I have stated my point, however briefly, I have no illusion that any changes in this direction are afoot nor that they could be officially promoted at this time in our political development, underdevelopment or misdevelopment. In order for such ideas of guild government to even surface it will require major catalysts of a different order and also no doubt a further disintegration of our system would need take place - the phoenix only rises from the ashes and while we are well on that way I would not hold my breath for such remedies in the immediate future.