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Democracies are failing

By November 10, 2024Uncategorized

populismTrump won and international co-operation lost. We are into a new dark age. US democracy has been in trouble for decades and has finally reached its nadir. Big money has won through. We are reverting to an age of authoritarianism, jingoism and inequality. The lessons of the Second World War seem to have been forgotten.

It isn’t just in America. Right across the world democracies have been found wanting. Backed by business interests, new ‘strong men’ have hijacked the system: Orban, Modi, Erdogan, Netanyahu and of course Putin.

As George Monbiot wrote in the Guardian:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/07/trump-voters-revolution-politics-right

On almost all fronts, decency and humanity have been retreating for years. Genocide, colonial conquest, the seizure of resources from the poor: all are resurgent, even before Trump returns to the White House. The rich have learned how to game our political systems. Capital has found the means of solving its longstanding problem: democracy.

The British model of democracy no longer looks fit for purpose. It is incapable of anything other than reacting to events. As I showed in my last post, it is characterised by a lack of expertise, short-term thinking and a failure to delegate. Right across Europe democracies face similar problems; they are struggling to cope with the pressures of immigration and relative economic decline. Europe once at the centre of the world is failing to compete economically with China and the USA.

Europe and Japan are the last bastions of the international consensus that is necessary to tackle climate change, falling biodiversity, environmental pollution and overexploitation of the oceans. If nations fail to co-operate the Earth will be the biggest looser and the grim reapers of war, famine, natural disaster, plague, economic failure, revolution and environmental disaster will sweep the planet.

The old democratic systems no longer work. We desperately need a newmodel of democracy that can deliver for all, not just the rich. But time is short. Memetic evolution is gathering apace. It needs to happen soon.