Is Democracy Dead: or can the people resurrect it from the shadow of big business?

For the last few days I have been reflecting on the social discord and unrest around Melbourne and elsewhere. After hearing of the violent police response to the Occupy Melbourne movement I felt the need to travel into the city and stand in solidarity. Until that point I had little invested in the movement other than championing them from afar. Like most other people, I had commitments that prevented me from camping out in City Square for an extended period. However, like many others, I was forced into action by the unnecessary and heavy-handed tactics of Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, and his authoritarian arm, the Victorian Police (complaints can be made to both respectively here and here).

For those who haven’t heard, the police were called in to break up the occupiers, and quickly resorted to violence which continued throughout the day. As word spread, many others joined the protest which organically shifted onto the Collins and Swanston st. intersection, before being violently pushed by police northbound on Swanston. For an interesting account of someone who was arrested for joining and standing in peaceful protest click here.

Many emotions have passed through me since the events of Friday: anger, frustration, fear, even hope. Yet above all of these is a deep melancholia at the confirmation that democracy is indeed an illusion… the shadow of big business… a lost utopia. I had suspected this to be true for some time, but in experiencing the reality that the political and police apparatus act at the beck and call of the wealthy minority, my fears were confirmed (I must confess here that I am well aware of our relative wealth in Australia compared to many parts of the world, and that our middle class response to the wealthy elite must keep that in mind).

The tactics of politicians and police against what was a peaceful protest revealed one thing: our society will allow freedom of speech… up to a point, and the right to demonstrate… until it actually inconveniences those at the top.

The public response from both Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu and Melbourne Lord Mayor Robert Doyle was almost a caricature that you would see of Burlosconi or worse, Mussolini. I was in shock as I read comments like “The selfish rabble got what it deserved” (Doyle)  and that police “had to use force” (Ballieu).

However, what was most shocking was that these comments garnered support from within the community:

Mikey of Oakleigh Posted:
Get rid of this feral rabble who have no clue what they are protesting about. If they don’t disperse and return to their holes turn fire hoses on them and let the police clean up the rest.

too many passengers Posted:
why does the media give these oxygen wasters publicity?. cut their dole,and give them a job. Until then they have no right to protest

Work Hard to Make It of Equal Posted:
Well done Rob! Don’t give an inch to these hopeless losers.

What a fine line we are walking as a society when our fellow citizens speak of each other in such a way.

While I don’t think that our political system is in any way similar to various fascist states or dictatorships, in some ways the illusion of freedom in “liberal-democratic” states is worse. Allowing the occupiers a window to demonstrate within illustrates this hypocrisy. If our government were to allow no vent for frustration, or expression of dissent, then we would see wholesale revolution like that of the ‘Arab Spring’. Philosopher and theologian Pete Rollins explores this very notion in his book The Orthodox Heretic.

This logic is beautifully expressed in The Matrix Trilogy, directed by the [Wachowski] Brothers. In the first film we learn that there is a city where people are free from the AI prison where the majority of humans are held and that Neo (Keanu Reeves) is the hero who can bring freedom. However, in the later films we learn that there have been many cities before Zion (the free city) and that Neo is just the latest in a long line of messiah-like individuals who have risen up to challenge the machines.

Furthermore, we learn that the machines are actually behind what initially seems to be the very force that would threaten them: they are behind the development of Zion and they provide the necessary conditions for Neo (and the other freedom fighters) to arise. Why? Because they understand that, for the oppressive system they have constructed to work, the Matrix needs to include a site of resistance.

In daily life there are reams of activities that are publicly disavowed by the government and society at large, yet are privately permitted. Among these are turning a blind eye to prostitution in certain areas, and the fact that we can all go ten miles per hour over the speed limit without too much fear of getting fined. These acts allow people to disobey the law in ways that are actually unofficially sanctioned by the law. We who engage in such state-sanctioned transgressions are otherwise good law-abiding citizens. Indeed our ability to break the law in small ways is part of what keeps us law-abiding the rest of the time. If we were not able to engage in small acts of transgression, if the law were absolutely unbending, then we would begin to rebel against it in a fundamental way. By creating leniency within the law, the law is not experienced as oppressive and is thus more likely to be accepted with all its flaws.

Sadly, this is the leniency and release valve that has been at play during the Occupy movement, the people had had their time, spoken their piece, and it is time to move on. What the powers underestimate however, is the level of frustration and powerlessness that people are feeling toward a system that has left them behind, and a government that is just not listening. There is a growing number of people from within our society that are crying out to be heard, a growing number of people who have witnessed the emptiness and hypocrisy of western “democracy” and see through the empty rhetoric and placating gestures of its equally powerless leaders. What remains is the question of whether the people can wrest democracy back from those who use it for their own gain.

Is democracy dead: or can the people resurrect it from the shadow of big business?