roubaixtuesday wrote: 28 Nov 2023, 11:46am
Again, i agree with you, actually strongly, on the failings of the British constitution.
But do you really believe the UK is less democratic than China? Are you actually serious, or is this just a bit of fun playing Devil's advocate?
You'll be familiar with Stockholm syndrome, where the captives come to see the perspectives of their captives then develop that empathy into a full-blown sympathy.
If we can do Foucault and somehow put aside the sympathetic love we have for the political system of which we are captives (which might be described as the love for the familiar and our relatively comfortable place in it) to see ourselves as others see us, we might consider that many British citizens are more like subjects of a (perhaps relatively benign) dictatorship, in that we have no real opportunity to escape our circumstances and the political system/policies that impose them should "comfort" melt away into a potentially lethal discomfort, as is the case for an ever-greater number of Blighters.
I would like to vote for a large range of polices and associated institutions that are nowhere on offer across the British political parties. The range of policies "allowed" are dictated by large forces such as big business, finance capitalism, large international institutions of various kinds, the monarchy and a socio-economic environment highly favourable to a small class of semi-aristocrats ensconced in what's generally known as The Establishment.
Happily I personally have the benefit of Attlee-established comforts (not available now to millions of Blighters) so my lack of an attractive political choice is a small matter to me .... today. Perhaps it was a small matter for many, many millions of others until the events, policies and perpetrators of our current national situation blighted their lives? It's no exaggeration to say that highly non-democratic responses of Blighters to their growing discomforts might come to discomfort the lot of us, if things go on as they are.
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I imagine (but don't know in any degree whatsoever) that millions of Chinese subjects are quite content with their political system and their place in it. But it's easier for many not-Chinese to assume that somehow they must all be terribly awfully discontent because they don't live in Blighty or the USA "with our wonderful democratic freedoms". That's what Bush & Bliar thought about Iraqis, if your recall.
Who knows? Many Blighters might find themselves far more content as subjects of the Chinese dictatorship? After all, many seem to crave a Vast Authority to tell them what to think and do.
“Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist”.
John Maynard Keynes
