We are at one of those points in history when the assumptions about the
organisation of power are being tested. These moments come around and in
the crisis some truth is revealed, but usually the deeper lie is
retained. The deeper lie is the right of individuals and groups of
individuals to acquire great wealth and power at the expense of others.
It is the collusion with this lie that makes most governments
illegitimate, but is also invariably the root of their access to power. This is the biggest danger we all face.
Governments draw their power from their power of coercion, from their
power to compensate and their power to manipulate the beliefs of the
people. It is no coincidence that governments control a military bound
by symbols of tradition or that god is invoked as the authority of the
state. The cost of this power is always the complicity of the baronial
class, be they landowners, mine owners, bankers or newspaper owners. In
revolutions the baronial class has been guillotined, shot, starved and
forced to toil the land, but never has a way been found to stop their
re-emergence. It would be easy to conclude that they are an inevitable
part of civilization, but this is to misunderstand the nature of the
lie.
The proper role of government is to create and enforce a body of law for
the good management of a country in the best interests of the people
who live there in such a way that it does does not do harm to other
countries or the broader global environment. Beyond the enforcement of
the law, government does not have any specific duty. If it chooses to
raise money to finance services that are needed, there is nothing that
says that it must itself provide those services, however it should have
due regard for the best interests of the people and this is not achieved
by passing the money and the duty to the baronial class. By the same
token, in choosing to provide such services itself, government should be
honest enough to realise that the interests of the people are unlikely
to be served by government itself acquiring baronial power.
The enemy of the baron is the anarchist. The anarchist would have it
that the barons would not exist. The anarchist knows in his heart that
there is nothing that is provided for the people by a baron that does
not come but at the price of freedom. He cares not that the baron is the
government or if the baron is a freelancer or a corporation. The baron
knows that it is vital to his power to always deny the anarchist the
opportunity to learn how to organise people in systems of equity and
autonomy. This is the ruthless front line of politics. It is why
Cromwell slaughtered the Levellers, it is why the Guardian was
established after Peterloo, it is why one revolution after another has
been betrayed, it is why the BBC and Fox News exist. It is the reason
why for one thousand years Britain has been in a state of conflict with
some country somewhere. It is why drugs are prohibited so as to justify a
massive police and prison system. It is why Labour Governments
centralize power. It is why the rich always buy land, control finance
and block and manipulate local government. If it were ever demonstrated
that we could organise ourselves without the baronial class the deep lie
of politics would be unmasked.
This is the front line of the battle for a future for the people of
Earth. As the energy, land and other resources that have enabled our
population to rise exponentially go into decline we face a future of
horror. The baronial class will let this happen to protect itself. What
chance there may be to manage the decline in our numbers to levels that
can be sustained is something we can only explore in a spirit of trust
and co-operation. The barons have no part to play in this.They must go.
