by Paul Revere
Editor’s Note: CORANZ is party political neutral but encourages outdoor recreationalists to become involved in politics where the policies and decisions often originate from.
Why should anglers care about politics and democracy? Well they should because decisions made and policies adopted in the Beehive in Wellington can have a profound effect on fisheries whether sea or freshwater, on trout and salmon, on their habitat rivers.
Politics in your sport of fishing is simply “cause and effect.”
How secure is democracy in New Zealand?
Well in my opinion, democracy is ill and is dying for several reasons, because most just don’t realise where the maximum influence is and where the policies and decisions are sown and germinate from.
Democracy is called government of the people, by the people and for the people.
It is a system of government in which decisions are supposedly the will of the majority of the people.
Democracy enables the citizens of a community to be represented and served by one of their own members.
Democracy limits the authority and power of the politicians and bureaucrats that are employed to serve the rest of the people.
Democracy is doomed to fail when the people start regarding “the government” as a parental figure instead of public servants who are employed, by the public, to do manage some basic things like national security, civil order, basic infrastructure, and protection of their equal rights.
Democracy fails when groups of citizens begin voting themselves “largess from the public purse” at the expense of others.
Our elections have become a competition between the influential members and funders of the National and Labour party to win by promising voters more benefits paid for with OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY.
Very few people are members of a political party and only a small percentage of these members are actively involved or influential. That small percentage has a deep impact on the policies and decisions in Parliament.
A very small number of party authorities decide who will be a candidate in elections, who will be selected, supported and promoted to be elected TO REPRESENT THEM.
List MPs. MMP also enables this small percentage to appoint people as list MP candidates to govern the citizens that were not allowed to vote for them.
An objective assessment of our current system clearly indicates that it it is government of the people BY A MINORITY OF THE PEOPLE – that small percentage, who by membership of a political party, have authority and influence and particularly in the National and Labour parties.
The proper name for this system of government is OLIGARCHY.
The Oligarchs can tend to regard themselves as superior to the “common people”.
They assume that they should use their political authority and power to decide what is “for the common good” and force the rest of the people to obey them.
They also assume the right to redistribute the wealth created by the productive efforts of the “working class” to individuals, groups of people and commercial enterprises that will support them to retain their political power. Often these are corporates who make political party donations.
These Oligarchs also use identity politics to divide the people into many opposing groups who will continue to support them in return for a share of Other People’s Money. Identity politics is a successful strategy of DIVIDE, CONQUER AND RULE.
Our system of government has become Oligarchy for one simple reason.
Too few citizens understand that democracy cannot survive unless they participate in the process of choosing the people that represent them in their government.
Voting for some stranger that was chosen and promoted by the influential members and funders of a political party with very few active members does not promote or protect democracy.
It only promotes more Oligarchy and authoritarian rule of the people by the chosen representatives of the elite DECIDERS in the National and Labour parties.
MMP was also very beneficial for these Oligarchs because it encouraged “dissenters” who might become actively involved and gain influence to stay out and form new little parties that really are no threat to the authority and power of the Oligarchs.
Christopher. Luxon has the role of Prime Minister because the influential officials and funders of the National party picked him to be their major political celebrity.
He must use the authority of his role to represent and serve the interests of these Oligarchs or be replaced by someone else that will.
He is refusing to allow a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi by the people because the people might just disagree with the decisions made by the Oligarchs of the National Party, who are benefitting from this racial division and allocation of privileges, public funds and other communal resources based on ancestry.
If more people would join a political party and try to become more actively involved and influential in one of the main political parties they would learn;-
1. No party has many members.
2. Few members are actively involved in party affairs and decisions.
3. Active involvement and influence is discouraged rather than encouraged.
4. The parties depend on a small number of wealthy “donors” for funding.
5. An elite group of party officials make the decisions for the rest of the members.
6. Members that disagree, get pushed out.
7. Members that are loyal, obedient and useful tend to be rewarded.
8. Elected or appointed MPs either do what they are told to do or are replaced.
9 The majority of the people have no idea of what is really going on.
10. The Oligarchs will continue to become more politically powerful, authoritarian and dictatorial “for the common good”.
11. The “common people” will continue to become more divided, conquered and ruled because they seem to like it or are just indifferent. Apathy is common.
There is only one sensible way to survive and prosper in this system of political Oligarchy.
Join a political party – the Oligarchs – and be influential.
Politics in most things is simply “cause and effect”. The issues emanate from political places, like political parties and through to government policy, if that party becomes government or part of it in a coalition such as with the present government.
So if you care about an issue or believe strongly in some policy, exert your influence politically. Joining a political poarty is a very good way. Paul Revere’s opinion piece is a very thoughtful and practical one.
Any person who says they’re not interested in politics and don’t want to get involved, has his or her head in the sand. Just wake up and don’t be apathetic. Greek philosopher Plato said “the price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men.”
The apathetic are the first to complain when something go’s wrong and upsets them.
Interesting stuff. Sadly many of the people most negatively affected by the current regime are so demoralised that they would not vote if an election was held tomorrow, We are experiencing the 40-40-20 model of politics. If 20% of the voters (the oligarchs and the sycophants) can convince 40% of the rest that they are the best at managing the economy – and if they are good little slaves then one day they may even become one of the top 20% – then you can openly screw the the downtrodden 40%.
Hmm, what we have is the best of all the other even worse systems of governance. As I understand in the original Athenian democracy you either had to be a serving member of the military (or had served) or you owned some land i.e. you had either risked your life and learned a few lessons or had some skin in the game. Seems fair enough. Universal suffrage is a wonderful concept but its legitimacy came into question the moment people figured out that they could simply vote themselves other people’s money. The question I have is why did the early democracies succeed at all? In theory those power could have made laws that only worked for the landed and or those in the military. My (total) guess is that those in power took a “paternal” view of the rest of society and knew the benefits of being even handed if they wanted a stable society. Maybe the flaw in Universal Suffrage is exactly that – because it is universal no one feels responsible to anyone else, hence the eat or be eaten situation that we find ourselves in today. That the rich eventually get all the riches is the long fuse finally burning getting to the gun powder.
With the resurgence of Trump in the US, a major shift in the world’s political spectrum is about to be unleashed – including on NZ.
One can only hope the current mob of ineffective wimps can see the writing on the wall and pull their socks up before it’s too late and become a one-term wonder (a failed one-term wonder!)
Perhaps a quote for Luxon would be “Ut ameris; amabilis esto.”- “If you want to be loved, be lovable.”
“Pull yer finger out ” would be a more modern phrase perhaps?
Another message for Luxon ‘’Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end’’ – Seneca
Had the opportunity with Labour’s demise, but maybe whoever prevails next year will have their “New Beginning”!!!!
So, people like quotes from Ancient Rome! How about Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt. – Juvenal?
Our later-day version may be “give them unlimited welfare and they’ll never bother working!”
How much do people know about the politicians and political parties they voted for?
Do they have any idea of what or who they are voting for except the election campaign promises and bribes they were offered in return for their votes?
How many members do the political parties have?
They will not say because there are probably far less than they would like us to believe.
How many party members are actively involved in deciding who will represent them in our government and what they will do if elected or appointed?
That is a well hidden secret.
Where does the money to fund party affairs and election campaigns come from?
There is a list of the significant “donors” of this funding on the Electoral Commission website.
Do the wealthy “donors” that provide tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a political party get a “return on their investment” and have influence on party decisions?
The people that pay the pipers often get to call the tunes.
The decisions of the minority of people who govern have serious consequences for the people that ARE GOVERNED.
Have those consequences been beneficial or detrimental to the lives of the ordinary working people whose productive efforts create the wealth that is taxed and spent by the civil servants employed to work for the people of New Zealand?
How many productive working people know how much of their present income is spent by “the government” and how much of their future income will be required to service and repay what “the government” has borrowed?
How much of the wealth that productive workers help to create is used for their benefit and how much is redistributed to benefit the wealthy minority and a increasing number of unproductive beneficiaries of “largess from the public purse”.
There has been very significant growth in productivity, GDP and the size, cost and authority of “the government” since 1973.
The prosperity of the “ordinary” productive workers and their families should have increased significantly as well but has not.
According to the data, statistics and evidence, the purchasing power of workers’ wages and salaries has not kept up with the increasing costs of living and this productivity and government growth has been more detrimental than beneficial.
The ordinary working people of New Zealand are worse off than than those of the 1970’s and the current younger people are even being told to expect to be worse off than their parents.
A wealthy minority, more government employees and an increasing numbers of unproductive beneficiaries of government spending and will continue to become much better off as long as our government is by politicians that were chosen by and represent the influential members and funders of the National and Labour parties
Continuing to vote for and elect the 2 dominant political ‘brands’ is a bad habit that voters need to recognize and try to get over because it is detrimental to the wellbeing of the “silent majority” of productive working New Zealand citizens.