Rather than a new government, Australia needs new and
improved governance.
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| "Surviving the Century" - writings about what we will need to do to survive the 21st Century. |
The classical Greek philosopher, Plato, argued that
democracy’s natural evolution was to that of an authoritarian government.
Australia has what by name is a democracy, but which in
practice is an authoritarian government; a government which is manipulated by
the elites for the elites making a lie of lie of Abraham Lincoln’s observation:
“Government of the people, by the people, for the people”.
The most pressing problem facing Australia, and the world,
is the constant corrosion of our climate, a dilemma that no liberal democracy
anywhere in the world is able to address for it is deep in the embrace of the corporations’
“responsible men”.
Looked at closely and dispassionately, liberal democracies
everywhere are beholden to corporate power and are subsequently powerless to
stop the environmental degradation big business rains down upon us in the name
of progress, profit and growth.
What is presently known as a liberal democracy is little
more than a corporate puppet: its survival is intimately implicated in and
dependent upon big business whose only responsibility is to ensuring a profit
for its shareholders, with scant regard for the earth’s biosphere and or its
finitude.
The externalities of business, being the environment upon
which our survival depends, is not considered in any agreement and so what is
known as “the commons” (our atmosphere, oceans and soils) along with every example
of our flora and fauna, is left in a degraded condition.
Liberal democracy is a fine idea, but its corruption and
distortion has littered the journey from conception to reality and so now what
exists is a sliver of what was intended.
Discussing humanity’s survival in his book, “Surviving the Century: Facing Climate Chaos and Other Global Challenges” Herbert Girardet
wrote: “If we embark on this, the most difficult journey humanity has ever
undertaken, with the steering wheel still in the hands of the limited-liability
corporations mandated to maximise profits, then we will never arrive”.
The world’s corporations have liberal democracy in a choke
hold and with this form of governance about to draw its last breath, those of
us who value decency, fairness and truth, and who are eager to leave the world
in a state in which our children and grandchildren, and their children, might
flourish, need to step-up and do all they can to dilute the power and influence
of those whose oxygen is growth, profit and dominance.
