Why do we still not accept this?
I occasionally put the odd political joke or comment up on Facebook and was pulled up on it last week by a friend suggesting it might be better to put political commentary on a more relevant site. (Are there any?) Should we apply the same rule for ‘sports’ comments ‘religious’ or even pet comments? Should we ban Kitty pictures?
I am actually not political in the least. Republican or Democrat, Labour or Conservative. They are all the same to me. It is the greed and self-serving self-aggrandizement of politicians that offends me. We do not actually have Democracy in most western societies. We usually have the same old career politicians taking turns every few years to get their snouts in the trough. That is why I no longer vote. These politicians are there as a career not to better your lot.
As true now as it was then.
We vote one lot of self-seekers out to put another lot of self-seekers in every few years. None of them particularly represent the average person, in fact the only times they deign to get their hands dirty with the common masses is come election time.
I am against injustice where a man earning hundreds of dollars per hour tries to stop a man on minimum wage see his own wages bettered by a few bucks. The politicians always scream greed or socialism when the average guy tries to do this. No doubt slave owners said the same. Ending slavery will mean the end of society. We cannot make a profit if we have to pay people … but they did didn’t they. In fact slavery never really went away. 90% of western populations are not a lot better off than the old time slaves were. They work long hours in lousy jobs to make profits for the business owners to live the good life. Nothing has really changed too much over the centuries.
Is it any better nowadays?
My idea of ideal politics is no politics. No parties and no self-seekers. I believe we should try Sortition. This was used by the Athenians a couple of Millennia ago. The idea is that there are no parties. Our representatives would be picked by lottery. There would obviously need to be checks and balances. Jury selection actually uses Sortition and similar but more stringent rules could be put in place.
These would be my suggestions.
Representatives would be changed at different times. Say we have a representative assembly of 400. We would change 100 in year one, another hundred in year two and so on. Every four years would see a totally new house. House leaders could be voted in by the representatives every two years.
Some kind of screening would be necessary such as in jury selection. Representatives would need at least a good standard of education and no criminal record. Maybe even some kind of weighting could be applied. The simplest would be making sure equal numbers of men and women are selected.
Remuneration for representatives would be paid at the minimum working wage plus 10%. That would be an incentive to improve everybody’s lot. They could claim expenses but only of the basic kind. No paid cars, houses or first class travel. Also no private healthcare as a perk. Healthcare should be free at the point of need as should all education including university. These essentials should be an investment in society not an avoidable expense. Representative’s jobs should also be legally held open for their return.
Now wouldn’t this all be so much better than the bunch of idiots we suffer now?
Please vote in the poll.
Oh yes I almost forgot the cute kitty pic.
Obligatory cute kitty pic.
© 2014 Stan M Rogers. All rights reserved.
Stan M Rogers 