Hands up those who live in the western world and who believe their vote every once in a while has a meaningful effect in determining their future.
Perhaps those with their hands up vote Green or another rather fringe party where there can sometimes be a moderating effect, this is true for instance in Germany where the Green Party does have a large following and thus can sometimes achieve serious changes. But what about the rest of you, especially anyone looking in from the USA or UK?
The USA, in my long considered estimation, has a sham democracy, exacerbated by a two-party system that works as a cosy cabal operated through big money, corporate influence and the lobby system. This system, dominated by the Military Industrial Complex, Big Pharma, Medical Insurance Industry and Big Oil is what generates policy, not the politicians. The politicians essentially work for the directors, board members and stockholders of the corporations within these industries. The rest is theatre.
When politicians are involved in policy-making it is 99% at the behest of the groups listed above. When it is not their influence is never wholly consigned to the background either. The Sword of Damocles is wielded first by those who fund the U.S. political class, then by mainstream media, followed by private citizens who provide funding for ideological reasons in the main, and lastly, and a long last, by the lowly rest of the U.S. population. These latter tend to be helpless in the face of the others bombarding them with the messages, missives and memes that one of the two main parties wish them to be brainwashed by. TV “news” and establishment talking points dominate. The result is that North American brains get permeated by a nightly dose of mesmeric conditioning mixed with just another form of combined fascination and entertainment such as a two-horse race might engender.
When one of the two elites primarily on offer wins the big prize the interest of western populations (the UK has a very similar situation to the U.S.) slackens considerably, enlivened once in a while by some manipulated or real political scandal. That waning interest is based on my initial comments, that it is well known among western populations that voting changes little and most commonly, nothing. Nothing of fundamental importance at least.
“If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.” - Emma Goldman
The assertions above are most clearly shown at times of war.
Millions took to the streets to show their disapproval of the clear intent of the USA and UK (along with others within their orbit) to go to war in Iraq. This massive protest against the determination of George W. Bush and Anthony Blair to attack and invade Iraq based on a pack of lies and propaganda counted for nothing. The die was set. The plans were made, the troops were on the ground and it just needed a few more lies by Colin Powell at the United Nations to get dubious consent to go ahead.
The governments of the USA, UK and many (if not all) in Europe do not operate by the consent of their populations. They will say they do, of course. But it is becoming ever clearer to a wider and wider audience that they do not. Take the current diplomacy-free stance of the USA, UK and their allies to Russia and China. Are the policies of the West advancing the wishes of western publics or is there an entirely geopolitical agenda that runs diametrically counter to their interests?
Does the average adult citizen and family member of the West want war? Isn’t it true that peace is by far the most favoured option? Peace, cooperation and the creation of a level of stability and well being that will allow their families and offspring to thrive, able to look forward in hope rather than in fear and trepidation. With climate change effects being seen more and more frequently to devastating effect and with humanity in the grip of a worldwide pandemic with undoubtedly more to come… how many households want to see a third world war added to the list of existential threats we face?
Yet western elites appear completely deaf and blind to the desires of the citizens. They appear to be marching to a different drum entirely, focused on completely alien goals to the man and woman in the street. And too they seem to be in a state of complete disregard concerning their hopes and desires. They clearly regard them as irrelevant, presenting an irritating distraction, one that detracts to an unwelcome degree from their desire to instil a jingoistic desire for endless division and war within them.
What degree of power can we imbue a vote with in such circumstances?
When nations are at war, truth is the first casualty, to paraphrase a well known saying. Western audiences are being treated with war propaganda every day that dawns. The economic rivals to the western corporations who run the West through its populations are China, and less so, Russia. The wars being waged against them are primarily economic wars, fought to maintain influence, to hold onto markets and the money that flows from them. The politicians work in tandem with the corporations on these aims, all wrapped up in a ball of potential death and destruction, mixed with concepts of loss of empire, status and destiny.
What we are seeing from the West is truly a murderous mix of influences.
So, who thinks voting for either of the two main parties in either the USA or UK will change a damn thing regarding all this?
Let’s see them… hands up.
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