We
Oldies remember that within our lifetime the sentence, "When politics fails...." did not end up with ...."we must fall
back on democracy.....". It ended with a word that begins with the
letter D right enough but wasn't democracy.
For millions of our fellow Europeans
the choice after politics failed was trying
to democratise family-run Monarchies ( to whom we were graciously allowed to
appoint advisors once every few years ) or sliding into a single party Dictatorship.
Our Europe was and still is a slow,
unwilling, recent and unsteady convert
to modern Democracy.
As Maurice
Chevalier might have sung , "Yes,
We Oldies remember it well".
We should be in mortal fear of losing what democracy
we have in Europe. At very least remembering Hilaire Belloc's famous advice to
children running into unforeseen and unusual dangers : "Always keep a hold on Nurse, for fear
of catching something worse".
We have had
a lot of elections in the past few years and yet we have had a lot of national and international chaos too. So
it's only natural that some commentators
and voters and even editorial writers might fall into a certain unhappy train of thought during election times, a train of thought that goes
like this :
At Election I
I'll vote for Soanso - right one to
get the job done, good candidate, good party....
Next election
I'll never vote for that one again, promised
a lot, didn't get....Still vote for the party though ....
Election after that :
I'll vote for that party no more ,
how did it get so little done ..........lazy divils ....this time my vote
goes right , left and centre, what difference ?
Next :
Political parties are a waste of
money. Don't want to bother with any of them, every one of them's just as bad as the other..........
Next election
No, I'm not voting any more ....not
for any party, they're all the same , do
nothings. I'm fed up with politics
...politics didn't work here for years , doesn't work now, won't ever, probably
never did.....what we need is strong government, not a collection of parties arguing , all full of people arguing ,
one strong party that's what we need, knows what we need without us having to ask
again and again , organises the business of government efficiently, doesn't
need winning elections to get it . Firm strong government, that's what we need
, you known how it is , when politics fails we need . ......what was that bit
from the newspaper editorial just last week....when politics fails, it said, what
did it say we needed ....Democracy ....but is that what's coming at us down the line , from
America, China, restless Europe ......Trump, moguls , merchants who bring their
idea of democracy packaged along with them - pret a manger - instead of letting
us work out, stage by painful stage, in our own, slow, ponderous way, our own
democracy and what it means ? Democracy created by us through trial and failure
as well as trial and success. The way
democracy has to be created and we can make it work.....
For us Oldies, these can be chilling but at the same time
challenging thoughts. If we despair of
our politics and abandon our attempts to democratise it - not just hope for some heavyweights to come
along and control or deform it for us , what can you see coming at us through
the chaos ? Some of the politics in America and elsewhere is so like what happened in Europe all those years
ago when millions of people did not for a moment suspect what was going to hit
them, when politics would lose its soul
in the hope of gaining the whole world . When the cry , " We need strong government ... " added the fatal words "...at all costs " and millions of marching crowds echoed it through
the streets.
Don't let politics ever again descend into such a struggle to dominate each other, pretending it is democracy. Politics that does not enrich everyone can never be democracy.
So let's make it a constant effort to enrich - and then share - each
other's ability to create a world worthy
of the world's dignity and worthy of our
own.
Democracy by trial and error, by
trial and success. Our trial and error, our trial and
success. We create our own democracy, we
don't try to catch whatever is packaged and thrown at us.
So, goodwill to all candidates, the successful
and the defeated in our elections. We
listen and learn from both of you. We need all of you.....
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