Democracy, surely classical Greece’s crowning achievement, has historically served us well. Societies were able to elect left leaning governments if they felt the need for more socialist or communal policies, more directed to the well-being of a society through more inclusive “caring” government; or right leaning governments if they felt the need to allow more room or liberty for the individual to excel, with the well-being for all being driven economically. However, governance by the extremes on either side of politics is counter productive to the goal of providing an environment in which society can continue to search for understanding. On the left we see groups such as The Greens in Australia imposing a sort of ‘pseudo’ idealistic, ‘feel good’ brand of policies, which from a moral high ground point of view are easy to fall into line behind. However they are imposed or dogmatic principles which ultimately repress the individual freedom needed to progress, and so can never succeed over the long term. Communism for example might seem like a good idea, but history has shown eventually, without the promise of any ‘ego’ sustaining rewards, progress suffers, and any populace tires of its oppressive yoke. Conversely the extreme right wing, represented by parties such as the One Nation Party (Australia), with its focus on the individual’s freedom leaves little room for any social conscience. Neither side should ever govern in their own right, because of their intrinsic lack of balance – society needs both to progress, and do so in a humane way. Unfortunately however, democracy can be undermined by these extreme ends of the scale. In Australia’s case The Greens hold the balance of power in a minority government and therefore policies have been implemented that were voted for by only 10% of the population. Fortunately though, in Australia the process is relatively civilized, but we see every day, in countries not so lucky, the tensions created by political divides boiling over, sometimes into outright war…
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 21:08:00 +0000
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