DIVERSITY THAT WORKS 

Assuming the host govt permits a generous degree of political autonomy, one of the most useful aspects of OA-Cities will be their freedom to create and tinker with their own customised forms of HEALTH-CARE & EDUCATION – and hopefully even the untouchable holy cow laughably known as “DEMOCRACY” (“rule by the people”)

Everyone has complaints about all 3, particularly Democracy.   There are many good reasons to hate the system, but its much easier to assign blame and endlessly moan about our poor old much-maligned politicians..!   This is to bark up the wrong tree because politicians are not the problem, they are simply the most visible manifestation of so-called REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY..!    We shouldn’t be blaming the politicians when it is the system itself which needs to be REFORMED..!

No sooner has one party won an election – even by a landslide – before everyone starts moaning about them and can’t wait for the next election, where the “people” can “punish” those they voted for by switching sides and voting against them..!  Wash, rinse, and repeat for election after election.   Despite democracy’s noble and lofty premise of “people power”, the people actually have virtually NO POWER at all..!  Politicians (MP’s) have a modest amount of influence but, outside of the ruling clique, mostly they don’t.  

Democracy gives the election “winners” – which may be just a tiny sliver of a majority, and quite often a numerical minority wins – a 4 or 5 year term to push through legislation that make the “losers” (who may even be the majority) very angry.  Thus stoking constant conflict.  This, to my mind at least, is not only very unjust but also very wasteful if the new rules are later repealed.   Surely it would make far more sense – and there would be far less potential for anger – if each “thought-group” could live in their own enclaves (“safe spaces”, perhaps?) where they would make their own laws and decisions.   This does not have to mean that a nation which tried this would split up into dozens of separate and antagonistic enclaves.  Each enclave could compare and learn from each other, just as we do as individuals.       

IN BRIEF, here is MY BEEF about the Holy Cow we curiously call Democracy.

• POLITICAL PARTIES – we wouldn’t need them if we were able to vote on the specific issues which concern us as individuals
• PAID POLITICIANS – not needed either, everyone should be allowed to be a politician on the issues that concern them, provided they are able to show that they are fully conversant with the issue.  And that’s not as difficult as it sounds with today’s technology.
• “YOUR” MP (1) – claims he/she will “represent you in parliament”.  No, he won’t – not if he disagrees with you..!
• “YOUR” MP (2) – In theory every constituent can have a face-to-face meeting with their MP at a “surgery”.  How is that possible when the average constituency size (in England) is 72,000..?  Imagine the workload on a GP with 72,000 patients..!
• CONSTITUENCY SIZE VARIATION – England has the most voters per constituency, hence less representation than Wales and Scotland.
• FIRST PAST THE POST – Unfair, as voters in “marginal” seats have a disproportionate influence on election outcomes
• ONE MAN ONE VOTE – Why are all voters equal?  Surely some people deserve more than one vote..?  Others deserve to be disqualified, if only for a temporary period, just as one can be disqualified from driving for different periods of time depending on the offence.

So there in a nutshell is my BRIEF BEEF about our beloved so-called Democracy.  I could go ON and ON, as I do HERE if you care to wade thru a number of rather rambling and somewhat repetitive screeds which, one day hopefully, I may edit down.

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Health Care and Education

As the 2 national budgetary items that consume most of our tax money, you would think there would be plenty of discussion about reforming them.  But in fact there is very little discussion and – as the NHS in particular is an untouchable HOLY COW in the eyes of so many – any talk of tinkering with its EVERYTHING FOR FREE FOREVER philosophy would be political suicide.  Yet the costs of the NHS are sky-rocketing with ever more demand for ever more – and ever more costly – drugs and medications and ever more – and ever more costly – and increasingly sophisticated medical treatments and operations, etc….

to be continued on page 94, as Private Eye used to say..!