It’s not the players that's the problem - it's the GAME!
I’ve been
saying this for a long time, and the Trump bashing shows that people still
don’t get it.
He was
elected properly in a system that every American “patriot” has always heralded
as the greatest, most democratic system in the “Free World”. He played the game
he had to to win. Anyone who partook in the election, as a registered voter,
whether they voted or not, automatically accepts the result of the election and
has forfeited any right to protest at the result.
It is
unbelievable to me that the Left in Ireland have also assumed the right to
protest against Trump’s win, especially as the election process isn’t even
completed. The Electoral College representatives still have to vote to confirm
his election as President, so there may yet be a twist to the tale.
Neither have
I ever seen the Left in Ireland protest against the election of any other foreign
leader. And I haven’t seen them protest against the Dáil’s election of a
Taoiseach that 75% of the Irish electorate wanted removed as Taoiseach. The
fact that Enda Kenny is Taoiseach is not the fault of voters, or indeed of
Fianna Fáil who endorsed his candidacy. The fault lies squarely with the Left,
for refusing to seize the opportunity that the electorate gave them, an
opportunity they may not get again.
To speak of
democracy in the Free World when these systems are designed to absolutely
remove the power of the individual is idiotic.
Although the
word “vote” is derived from the latin word for “vow”, I rather think it more
relates to the word “voice”. Your vote is your voice: your convictions, your
values, your aspirations. But what is the ONLY thing you can do with your vote?
The only thing you can do with your vote is cast it. Cast it away. You delegate
your power, your voice to someone else whom you choose to speak FOR you. After
that you no longer have a voice ... you are effectively silenced.
The person
to whom you give your voice, your power, has absolutely no obligation to you
after you have been silenced. You are powerless to affect their choices, their
decision and their actions in office. You have no right of recall. Until the
next election, usually some five years later, when you have your voice (vote)
again ... for one day ... when you casts it (away) again. And so it goes.
This
surrender of power is further compounded in the party system by the Party Whip.
It is ironic but somehow very appropriate that the political system controls
all that surrendered power by means of a WHIP! Doesn’t sound very free or
democratic to me...
The Whip
System means that the convictions, values and aspirations of your delegate are
subjugated by the interests of any number of external influences who hold power
over the party leadership, either ideological, economic or religious. The
Catholic church still has some hold over the political system here although as
the Kenny/Noonan generation die off this will eventually lessen. The Financial
Elite (Global Investors, Central Banks, The Markets) have increased their power
over politics in recent decades and hold the reins of power currently.
The next
wave will be the Global Industrialists and Corporate Fascists who will carve up
the globe in a network of trade agreements and ownership of depleting natural
resources. The headlines that “TTIP IS DEAD” are a ruse to placate the Social
Justice Warriors and those activists and tiny percentage of the population who
actually know what TTIP is. It will no doubt re-emerge in some other form,
under some other innocuous acronym.
Politics is
a game, and under current game rules your vote is no more than your chance to
pick your favourite players. When the players take to the field, you’re just
another spectator in a blue or green or red shirt, shouting from the terraces,
pissed off at the tactics, with no say in how the game is played, no influence
over who wins or loses and share in the victory spoils. You pay for ticket in
the stands, you watch and you go home. And as the prize money goes up, the
players’ salaries increase and the sponsors and managers make a killing, the
price of the ticket just goes up and up and you just keep showing up at the
game.
You can
nominate players for the team, but the managers - the party leadership and
strategists - decide on the tactics. The managers in turn are controlled by the
owners - the team’s sponsors, donors, backers: the Denis O’Briens, the Peter
Sutherlands, the Michael O’Learys, the Googles, The Microsofts. These backers
in turn are controlled by the Central Banks who underwrite the sponsors. And to
ensure the rules of the game are adhered to, the Law Society provides the
referee.
And sure the
referee doesn’t even get to adjudicate when both teams decide to go to the
sideline and set up a little tribunal to see who broke what rule. nobody gets
penalised and the game goes on...
The most
important rule of the game? No-one from the stands is allowed on the pitch!
So it’s not
the players that are the problem with this faux-democracy. It is the game. It
is rigged and you will ALWAYS lose.
What would
happen to the game if nobody bought a ticket? If nobody supported it, or wanted
to participate, even as a spectator? What if everybody in the stands decided
“We don;t like your game anymore. We get nothing from it. It is rigged, corrupt
and unfair”? What if everybody in the stands decided “we’re finished with your
game...and we’re going to go away and start a new game, our own game, which is
fair and which we are all stakeholders, with real benefit from it”?
That is the
essence of what I have been intimating with the hashtag #DeRegisterNow.
As we have
seen three times already this year : the electorate decide NOTHING! They don’t
elect the government, they don’t decide on Brexit (in the sense that the
politicians have the power now to “manage” Brexit), and they don’t get to
decide who becomes President.
THAT is why
nothing ever changes. The system is designed to be self-protecting. The Elite
(Insiders) always maintain ultimate control while the 99% (Outsiders) remain
powerless. The spectators are never allowed on the pitch.
In Ireland,
what the electorate do is elect the Dáil. The Dáil elects the government. And
because you have to be over eighteen to vote, the electorate only comprise 3.5
million of the population. Also, you do not automatically have a vote! You have
to specifically request that ou be added to the electoral register. This act of
registering to vote is your explicit and voluntary acceptance of, endorsement
of and subscription to “the system” ... the rigged game.
By definition you are
supporting and condoning the political system and its processes. So that
whether you voted for the winning party or the losing party (who are all
Insiders anyway) or whether you didn’t vote at all, you accept the results and
consequences of this corrupt system.
The
government (the ‘State’) derives its authority, its mandate, from the electorate.
It claims to be a democracy and in a democracy, the majority rules. Seems fair,
right?
What I
suggest is that if the “electorate” of the Rip-Public-Off Ireland comprised
less than 50% of eligible voters in the country, the State could not claim any
authority over the people. And if enough people DeRegistered, and created an
ALTERNATE electoral register, holding its own elections, THIS electorate could
declare a NEW state independent from the Rip-Public-Off Ireland.
Most people
are unaware that it only takes 7 people to form a government.
The
important thing is not how many vote, but how many are registered. If only 1
person in each county voted, those 26 delegates would go to Dáil Eireann and
between them form whatever alliances they needed to elect a government and
Taoiseach. Only 26 people have voted, but the result is endorsed by the other
3.5 million people on the electoral register... So the result is valid and
legal even if it is not “democratic”.
Here’s
something to ponder : when did the age of the President ever become a matter of
national importance? Were there no other issues more important to the people of
the ireland to vote on (for example securing our water in the hands of the
people and placing this and other natural resources beyond the reach of
privatisation)? Who thought it so important an issue to have the age of the
President included on the referendum ballot paper?
Well, my
only conclusion is that making it an issue would provide some sort of incentive
for young, unregistered citizens to get registered. This and the same-sex
marriage issues were guaranteed to see a critical boost to the numbers of
registered voters and the strength of the electorate - from which The State
derives its authority. In the face of an aging population, with increasing
public apathy towards political participation, the disenfranchisement of most
of the country and the disillusionment of the youth towards the corruption and
rampant cronyism of the 1% at the top, I believe those who now the truth about
how the system works realised they have to secure control of the “democratic”
system with an injection of subscriptions... because if the electoral register
comprised less than 50% of eligible voters the government and all agencies of
the State would be unconstitutional... as long as there was an alternate
register, and alternate elections, representing the MAJORITY of Irish voters.
But hey, I’m
just a cynic, right?
If you read
the Constitution carefully you will find that the current state offers you NO
rights and NO protections in law. After all, how can some anonymous Joe in the
stands have any rights ... they’re all Outsiders.
What we need
is a rewritten Constitution, including the clear designation of national
natural resources as the property of the people held in trust by the State; a
Bill of enumerated Rights; a new set of parliamentary rules : no party whip, no
free-money expenses, limited TD salaries, limited duration of life in the Dáil
& Seanad (no lifetime career passengers), capped pensions, an end to
multiple pensions, publicly elected Seanad, separation of Judiciary and
Oireachtas, a Stalker-style review of the Garda Siochana, the termination of
all US military flights through Irish airspace, the mandatory inspection of US
flights landing in Shannon - it’s Irish soil, not US soil!, and many more
measures) as well as a referendum on membership of the EU.
Most of all
we need, and what we do not have now, is a system of accountability,
transparency and CONSEQUENCE for those in public office. The biggest and most
obvious problem with the current system is that for a certain class of people
in Irish society there appear to be absolutely NO CONSEQUENCES for misconduct,
abuse of power, betrayal of trust or criminal behavior.
Bertie Ahern
should be in jail. Denis O’Brien should be in jail. Michael Noonan should be in
jail. But the system protects Insiders, while pensioners without TV licences go
to jail. No politician EVER takes responsibility for their fuck ups...they are
always “acting on best advice”. How many times have we heard Kenny, Noonan,
Ahern, Martin, Burton say they were acting on “best advice”. So they admit they
don’t make the decisions ... they are being directed by “experts”. The
Taoiseach always seeks the legal advice of the Attorney General, who interprets
the law for the government, which on the fave of it sounds fair, right? I mean,
the referee makes sure the rules aren’t broken, right? Except the Taoiseach
appoints the Attorney General... Similarly the Supreme Court interprets the
Constitution, and the Supreme Court judges are all appointed by the poilitcal
Insiders. If the Constitution can be “interpreted” then clearly you have no
ABSOLUTE rights.
In Ireland,
for Insiders, there is no responsibility, no accountability, no transparency,
no guilt, no shame, nobody resigns, nobody gets sacked and nobody goes to jail.
This is not a democracy.
Of course we
cannot simply banish those that are currently in power who are guilty of all of
these things. They too have a right to a place in the new game. But they must
play OUR game, with NEW rules, without exception. In this way, all the agencies
of the state: civil service, public sector and even the current political
parties could transfer to the new system seamlessly ... although I believe many
would no longer wish to play...
The game is
so rigged and so protected that I believe it is impossible to change it from
within. It would be like saying you’re going to join the mafia and successfully
turn it into a charitable organisation with debate and rhetoric. You can’t save
a barrel of rotten apples by throwing in a few good ones!
And you
can’t change it from without. The water protests of the past two years have
demonstrated that the whole nation, no matter how loud it shouts, is not being
heard by the Insiders. Why? Because you’re shouting with no voice. You gave
your voice away when you cast your vote.
That leaves
only two options: Blow It Up or Walk Away.
I don’t
think any right minded person wants to see some kind of bloody revolution on
our streets. I certainly don’t. But in the absence of an alternative, the
dysfunction of the current system in terms of public service and public interest
will certainly lead us to that point: look at America.
But there is
an alternative - the only one left. WALK AWAY.
Refuse to
support this system. DeRegister and create a new system. Stop playing their
rigged game, where you not only never get to win, but aren’t even allowed on
the pitch.
I read today
that the most hated man in America (after Trump I guess) Colin Kapernick,
quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, has become even more vilified as an
un-American traitor because it turns out he has never registered to vote. Of
course this is abhorrent to “patriotic Americans” who believe they live in the
greatest democracy in the world but it turns out Kaepernick is a greater
patriot than all of them. He became enemy no.1 earlier this year when he
refused to stand for the national anthem at NFL games because he was protesting
at the out-of-control fascist oppression of the black and colored communities
by police across the country. In response to the revelation that he has never
been a registered voter Kaepernick explained: “I said from the beginning I was
against oppression, I was against the system of oppression. I’m not going to
show support for that system."
That is what
you call a Free Man.
I also want
to be free.
I don’t want
my or my children’s lives to be controlled by unelected bureaucrats: #fuckEU
I don’t want
my or children’s lives to be controlled by Corporate Fascist Puppets: #FuckTheFreeState
I would call
on all Irish citizens to remove the authority of The State #DeRegisterNow and to stop participating in a
corrupt and oppressive system: #TotalNonCompliance
We can build
Pearse’s dream again
and call her
Éirú
©TheDissidentDrum
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