The People's Revolution – The future

In the last article “The Internet Revolution for Numpties” I explained how the king-makers of the old establishment in the form of the “mainstream” press had lost their power due to the internet and how this had enabled the development of “non-establishment” politics: UKIP, SNP in Scotland, Brexit, Trump & even the Arab Spring. But I chickened out of suggesting where it would lead.
The problem is that the “Internet revolution” or perhaps more accurately “people’s revolution” may have a common technological cause and may be similar in terms of who is losing power (establishments) and who is gaining power (people), but it is not common in old-fashioned “left-right” type descriptions of politics – because these are inherently a description of the differences between establishment parties: what we are trying to describe is a different between establishment politics and people’s politics which is undoubtedly there, but which the establishment press, broadcasters and politicians try to deny exists.
Following the discussion about whether (the establishment in) Parliament or the people should have the last say on whether we Brexit, the old (establishment) chestnut of “we live in a parliamentary democracy” has surfaced. And that is something that will clearly change.
Of course, no one ever had a referendum in which we the people gave sovereignty to parliament. Instead (the establishment in) parliament through (the establishment in) the press & broadcasters told the people (and try to endlessly repeat it) that the establishment are in charge over the people (they’re not!)
In the last article, I explained how the development of printing and the reduction in cost, which meant that ordinary people started to hear about the day to day politics and naturally felt that they ought to have some say. Over many years this eventually developed from the idea that the establishment were in charge (through the king) and the people were ignored, into the the concept that the people had a small say through a beauty contest for which part of the establishment they wanted to run the country – and then the establishment treated the people like children deciding what is best for us.
The Internet Revolution
In days gone by – in order to make a point to your elected representative, you had to travel to London (costing several hundred pounds), be treated like a child and asked to wait outside the area where MPs did the “adult stuff”, and then your MP might eventually deign to meet with you for a few minutes, in which time they would basically either nod as if they agreed (to avoid a long conversation) and then ignore what you said, or if they were young and idealistic, they’d lecture you about how wrong you were and treat you as if “you must just accept that we betters know better”.
The MPs had all the power, and unless you could get a local paper on your side against the MP, or you had the time and money to personally deliver leaflets and try to get a campaign going, there was nothing you could do about it – you just had to go home several hundred pounds poorer and even if you were an expert in your area, if you were not part of the establishment, you just had to accept that your MP had all the power.
Then along came the internet, and because you could contact people without going through the press and without involving your MP or other politicians,  people started campaigning on all types of issues, some small some big. Almost as importantly, people started becoming experts in their own right through the internet without ever being lectured by the establishment on what to believe. However, the political establishment, and the way the press and broadcasters treated the people did not change.
The result, is that we now have two types of politics: “Establishment politics” in which the people are treated like children unable to take any decision except the hard fought for right to have a “beauty contest” once every five years as to which establishment party gets in … and the “people’s politics” which largely exists under the radar of the press and establishment, but which like a volcano, can lie “dormant” under the establishment radar, slowly gathering support, until something causes it to explosively erupt into the view-field of “establishment” parties” when they panic at the sight of this hitherto unknown force.
The Future
This leads to one simple conclusion about what will happen in the future. Just as the printing press started to include relatively ordinary people, so that eventually they pressed home the demands to have some say in politics, now with the internet, people are going to press home the demand to have even more say over politics.
In simple terms, that means we are going to move away from the (establishment) concept of parliamentary democracy (aka the people have a minimal say over which establishment party lords it over us) and we are going to see increasing demands for real democracy – that is rule by the ordinary people, particularly over large issues like membership of the EU. People are no longer going to accept the establishment taking all the decisions for us.
Government Consultations
And just to delve into one of the more corrupt areas of government, I’d like to quickly mention the development of government “consultations”. These are a development (or more likely an established practice) in which the government asks people to comment – and then to be quite frank, they ignore all that has been said by anyone who isn’t part of the “establishment”.
Indeed, there is now a whole art form in government, of finding ways to appear to have a consultation but which is nothing of the form. So, they ask a series of questions about meaningless aspects of a project: but never ask whether the project should go ahead. Many people are taken in. They believe they have been listened to, and so feel they can’t complain at the result, but in fact their submissions were totally ignored.
So, they allow the people to vote on the form of the Scottish parliament – but never reveal the result and only by accident reveal that the architect had been chosen before consultation. They consult on “Lords reform” – and when 10% of the responses are for a citizen’s jury to select the members: it is not mentioned by one establishment broadcaster or in the establishment report (despite the rules clearly stating otherwise). They consult on “renewable energy” – but never once consult the public on the real issue: whether the academic (establishment) obsession with global warming has an credence – or even if it were warming, whether the cost of stopping (largely beneficial) warming is worth the absolutely massive economic cost.
Consultations are a sham – open to everyone – but they only ever listen to “the establishment” contributions and ignore everyone else. This is the way everything is run in the UK from the BBC to the British museum . The establishment decides – and we the people have to accept what they decide for us – and then they have the gall to lecture us about it being a “democracy”!
But as people become increasingly aware of what other people are saying and thinking on a whole host of subjects, and as we learn that this is very different from what the few in the establishment think and do, there will become overwhelming demands that the establishment stop ignoring the wishes of the and start acting like our servants and not our masters.
However, whilst I can predict the mechanism of change, more and more demands for a direct say over important decisions affecting our lives, what I am incapable of doing is predicting what the consensus view of the people will be on specific issues (except in those areas where I have had a long interest). So, whilst the people’s revolution is inevitable, and whilst it will involve a change in balance so that there is far more real democracy and far less “establishment deciding for us”, I still have little idea what ideas and views will prevail in this new era. I may love it, I may hate it.