We the People Are (Now) On Trial

The people are now on trial. Not by fame or power, not by name, but as conscious members of the human family.

There have been massive marches in capital cities throughout most of the democratic world, but they don't seem to garner the media attention the numbers would appear to warrant.

Front page headlines don't play up engagement or crises if human blood is not spilled. Headlines like extreme politics are not impressed with human activity, knowledge or creativity.  Seems there has to be something manufactured like weapons, vehicles, buildings or money involved. I have heard that newspapers need drama to survive.

However it is the people who are on trial.  We have to let the world beyond our doors know that we will not let the economy make us look irrelevant.  We have to participate in civil society. Not because I say so but because without the commons and our stories, we shall be exploited like cattle in a shed and fish caught in a net.

We know that in the Western world there are two major driving forces of change. One is money, and the other is downplayed to the extent it is barely acknowledged - and that is the broad spectrum of human nature.

Human nature is flawed. It is attracted to the idea of power by association. That is if you are the "right" type - you are given the protection of being in the majority -  a privilege the majority does not see or feel in any conscious way. However the sense of being on the right team, in the right colours, enables a confidence, a fantasy of normalcy, an access to common sense, a right to use the term "we" in expressions of what is right or wrong.

So fascism applauds that power and there will be at least 40% of the population who love that even if they cannot admit it.

Feminism ("the belief that all people deserve an equal chance at success, regardless of gender" - Elizabeth Renzetti, Globe and Mail) is probably a major player of the resistance.  It receives a lot of accusations from traditional groups which are extreme and unfounded, but the emancipation of 50% of a population is obviously a thorn in  the side of an unchallenged hierarchy.  

The fear of equality and democracy is expressed in certain institutions. It threatens to bust apart the status quo. Emancipated, educated, courageous people are the enemy of well managed interests. The voice of humanity with all its quarrels threaten to throw society into chaos and so wherever power is given to a few, they will use whatever weapons they have to silence humanity.

A society that honours life can dispense with racism, religious chauvinism, classism, ageism and sexism.  These are the tools that keep power in the hands of a few.  But power transforms itself to hide from or use the changing demographic.  This is why immigration is seen as a threat to peace and prosperity.

The tragic flaw of humanity lies in the power we pretend is not there. If we are economically well off and have social stability, we prefer not to think about those who are struggling and marginalized.

Populist movements say 'you're okay as long as you are in the majority. What you think and feel is okay. Your understanding of history is the most common and therefore closer to the truth than any specialized academic. Your prejudices are based on the most common knowledge and most likely to be true.' You can express your beliefs among other "normal" people without being challenged. 

When money is kept out of the public infrastructure, it requires a consistent stream of propaganda to appease the majority who suffer from intellectual poverty. The masses who feel little hope because money has been centralized to a few, become dangerous. Politicians who rely on public support and votes dare not say what is true - they must offer special treatment to their funders such as low taxes, and the poor cannot fund political parties  must take up the slack with low wages and high costs for education and health. We look for fantasies to account for the system we are trapped within, the system that becomes more and more dehumanizing with its ever increasing "authority". 

Relationship, bonding and cooperation must be replaced with competition, mistrust, fear and blame.  

It has taken centuries to implant a control in the human consciousness and each time the masses begin to search, to think and to cooperate with one another and demand social justice the old "weapons" are brought out to divide and confuse us.

But now all we have is our wisdom, our sight, our curiosity and honesty to break apart the towers of lies.  Now we must create our civil society based on the needs of humanity so we can protect the diversity of earth's creatures.