The last time that I voted was earlier this year in the council elections. I advocated that people vote for the Green Party since it is the only party which takes climate change as seriously as is proportionate to the problem and nothing matters if you’re dead.
Whereas I chose to use my vote in the elections, many people chose not to, leading to a generally low average turnout. This low turnout is normal. The traditional analysis largely says that low turnouts are due to laziness and ignorance. This is the received wisdom within our society, pushed and perpetuated obliviously by the education system and mainstream media. The truth, though, is that much of the apparent disinterest in voting is due to abstinence - people simply choose not to vote.
‘Voting’
I recently watched a movie about climate changed called The 11th Hour. Toward the end of the movie, when it begins to advocate action, a woman called Gloria Flora talks about how citizens can take simple steps to help stop climate change:
“You can also vote - and I don’t mean voting at a voting booth. Anybody of any age can vote because you vote everyday that you pay for something. Every time you lay money down on a counter to buy something you are saying that: ‘I approve of this object, I approve of how it was made, the materials that are in it, and what’s going to happen with it when I no longer need it and throw it away’.”.
We have much more power than just the conventional vote at the voting booth. We have the power to ‘vote’ and effect change in so many other ways, everyday: when we buy things, in the way we treat others, and in the way we treat ourselves.
Indeed, we could say that those who chose not to vote at election time are even ‘voting’ not to vote.
In my past I have ‘voted’ in extraordinary ways sometimes. I originally applied to University to study Politics and Philosophy. I received offers from some wonderful and prestigious universities. I ended up refusing all the places I was offered. Looking back now, one of the effects of my decision was to ‘vote’ against the political system as a whole. How, you ask? Well, I suddenly realised that I was not going to let myself be a product of the system and be part of the ‘excess’ and ‘mass’ that our system spits out. I told a friend: I just don’t want to be taught other people’s understandings of world events and international affairs in an academic environment. Ultimately, I didn’t want my moral consciousness to be sucked out of me by the system.
The paradigm and belief that we have no real power other than the conventional vote is extremely destructive. It sustains disintegration in our society, disregard for others, and the general “lack of moral consciousness” which is increasingly prevalent. This has all led to a general lack of a sense of community in our country which is ultimately the biggest social problem in our country today.
Why the disillusionment? Examining the system
It’s not difficult to see why thousands of people are disgusted and disillusioned by our political system and how great power treats people. People feel that politicians, their actions and policies are often disconnected from reality, humanity and morality, and distrust them.
In taking a look at some key people who have risen to the most powerful places within our society - if we look at the top of the food chain, so to speak - we can see the general principles that are inherent throughout the system.
For instance, we can look at Tony Blair, Prime Minister for a decade - a very long time in politics. Blair is considered by most of the world as an instigator of an illegal war of aggression against the formerly sovereign nation of Iraq, or even as a war criminal. Yet, Blair ended up becoming Special Peace Envoy to the Middle East, representing the European Union, the United Nations, the United States, and Russia. The fact that Blair started a war in the Middle East in 2003 was clearly forgotten when great power evaluated his aptness for being a Peace Envoy to the region in 2007. The people didn’t choose Blair for this position, the system did.
As if this wasn’t enough, Blair was even awarded a Presidential Freedom Medal by George Bush in January 2009. The medal is said to be the “highest recognition of devotion to freedom and peace” in the US political system. The fact that Tony Blair helped the United States wage a war in Iraq was clearly forgotten when he was given the commendation for his devotion to peace.
Of course, Blair’s wars and criminal acts were not forgotten though - they were, and are, simply irrelevant according to the principles inherent in our political system and that of the US’.
It is these glaringly immoral principles which cause disillusionment.
Examining the media
We can also look at the media output within our society to see the principles inherent throughout our political system. The BBC’s “flagship” current affairs programme, Question Time, has been the subject of much (valid) anger in recent weeks, particularly surrounding Nick Griffin MEP. Question Time’s modus operandi, style, and tone are a true representation of those within our entire system. In last week’s episode, we were told that we should be “rejoicing” that Tony Blair is now likely to become the President of the new European Council. We were even told that Blair is “a pleasant sort of chap” by one panellist, a Member of Parliament, Cheryl Gillan. (It’s comforting to know that if I ever become one of history’s epic liars, I will still be regarded by some Tory MPs as a “pleasant sort of chap”.) David Miliband MP, Foreign Secretary, said, “the EU President must be someone who is well known on the world stage”. Tony Blair certainly meets that criterion - war criminals do tend to stick in the mind quite well.
It’s not only the UK’s war leaders which are paradoxically heralded for being peaceful. US President Barack Obama was recently awarded a Noble Prize for Peace. This is also typical ‘output’ within the UK and US political systems.
The prize, of course is a farce, not least for the fact that Obama was nominated for the Peace Prize having only sat in office for 11 days. Clearly, the Nobel Committee believed that his words and orations were more important than his actions.
Perhaps someone should tell the Nobel committee that unfortunately sweet words don’t mean anything unless they come with sweet actions. Words don’t stop people from dying, Mr. Obama.
The principle which says that words are more important than actions is also often adopted by the UK system. For instance, Tony Blair took us to war with Iraq in 2003 because of the threat that was apparently posed by Iraq insomuch as it could blow us to smithereens within 45 minutes. Yet the “impartial” BBC clearly subscribes to a different reality than most of the world:
[In 2006] the BBC’s director of news, Helen Boaden, was asked to explain how one of her “embedded” reporters in Iraq… could possibly describe the aim of the Anglo-American invasion as to “bring democracy and human rights” to Iraq. She replied with quotations from Blair that this was indeed the aim. (Pilger)
The media’s coverage of Obama’s Peace Prize was actually quite critical but most of this was superficial (false contention). However, there were a few notable exceptions to the superficiality. Russia Today, for example, renamed the prize the “Nobel War Prize” in its coverage.
The reality is not just that Obama is not a President of peace, but he is positively the antithesis, as Peter Lavelle, commentator, explained, “[Obama]’s a war president right now; he’s not a president of peace… He’s a president of a country at war.” The actions taken by President Barack Obama since his arrival in office certainly show that he is not interested in peace, and he is a president of war. He has perpetuated and escalated the immoral practices of the previous administration. To name but just a few stories:
- Guantanamo bay is still open
- Usage of secret prisons worldwide has been allowed to increase
- Usage of unmanned drones has increased. Drone bombings have killed hundreds of civilians recently in Pakistan, for example. Such attacks by un-manned aircraft have been recently condemned as so “cruel as to be beyond the pale of human tolerance”, even by the most mainstream figures.
- War in Afghanistan has been escalated by sending thousands of more troops to the country to fight a war of unknown objectives against an indefinable enemy who’s casually called the Taliban.
I ask you, please, to think for a second and ask yourself: how can a man who is responsible for war and death be given a prize for his contribution to peace?
In our system, the truth when it comes to ‘peace’ is clearly not important.
What of Compassion and Empathy in our system?
While Bush, Blair, and Obama’s wars roll on, sustaining killing and injustice, these very leaders are awarded with Peace titles.
We must think to other lands where our brothers and sisters are on the receiving end of ‘our’ foreign policy and wars. For instance, if you were Middle Eastern and your family had been affected, how would you react in hearing on the radio that Blair was made Peace Envoy(?) - the very man that started a war against your country was heralded by his countrymen, decorated, and given more power and opportunity to cause more human suffering?
Would you sink into despair? How desperate would you become? Can you imagine yourself feeling so betrayed by humanity and other peoples, so desperate and so hopeless that you felt the only thing you could do was to blow yourself up? Jenny Tonge MP in 2004 admitted she could imagine herself being that despairful:
“I think if I had been a mother and a grandmother in Palestine living for decades in that situation, I don’t know, I may well have become one [a suicide bomber] myself”
For empathising with the Palestinian people, a people betrayed by the rest of humanity for over 40 years, Jenny Tonge was thrown out of the Liberal Democrat party, amidst news coverage that she had “sympathised with terrorists”.
Jenny Tonge transgressed a principle within our system, a boundary which dictates which human beings are and which are not worthy of understanding and empathy. She was thrown out of the mainstream. This is no isolated incident.
George Galloway MP was thrown out of his party too for empathising with other human beings. In 2003 he was thrown out of the Labour party for saying that a country “which is invaded illegally by foreigners has a right to, will, and should defend itself”. The Labour party and the media reported this simply as: Galloway “told Iraqis to resist British troops”. He also advocated that British troops disobey illegal orders, as is their obligation under international law. The Labour party and the media simply reported that remark as Galloway telling British troops to “disobey orders”.
Many of the great principles in our system are morally repugnant and most of the world does finds them disgusting, and this is what causes disillusionment, hence low turnout. We must remember that we have much more power than the conventional vote.
From the Tonge and Galloway cases, we can see that truly empathising and understanding another people is not acceptable without our system. Indeed, as Tony Blair once admitted:
“I have learned that in politics, caring isn’t really about caring”
