“I think there are two ways in which people are controlled. First of all frighten people and secondly, demoralize them,” Benn told filmmaker Michael Moore. “… The people in debt become hopeless, and the hopeless people don’t vote.” Too many in power encourage such apathy and believe, he said, that “an educated, healthy and confident nation is harder to govern.” “To begin with, if you come up with a radical idea it’s ignored. Then if you go on, you’re told it’s unrealistic. Then if you go on after that, you’re mad. Then if you go on saying it, you’re dangerous. Then there’s a pause and you can’t find anyone at the top who doesn’t claim to have been in favor of it in the first place.” He showed that politics, no matter how principled or drastic, did not need to be mean or cruel. Once again, he revealed the humanity within. “In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. ‘What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?’ If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.” Anthony Wedgwood Benn, RIP
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:45:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015