Is Democracy truly present within a Market System that controls mass media?

[David]

When so many people are kept from the knowledge of how their government really functions, can Democracy be said to exist?

[H.M.]

No. Not until that is fixed, and not until we find a way to take the money out of politics, and the electorate finds a way to get better informed. Too many people get their information directly from the headlines and campaign ads, thus allowing politicians with the deepest pockets and richest donors to win.

[David]

Ding, ding, ding correct answer Charley. Johnny, tell him what he wins. Well Charley you've won an all expenses paid, glazed over stare from the massive machine of puppet land. And if that's not enough, a future spiraling further toward chaos every year and if you're lucky, you'll get to experience the beginning of human extinction in your lifetime. How does it feel to be a winner?

No but seriously, at this point working with the systems current design seems redundant. The entire set up is just that, set up, and we need to restructure at this point, not just slap another band aid on it. What do you think about the market systems ability to react to out global crisis's? And how do you propose to change the influence of money without removing the current economic model? A paradigm shift in what we value seems necessary to me. I now ask myself will our current mindset and system that created it, bring us into the next 26,000 years?

[H.M.]

hmmm...doesn't feel great to be a winner. can i try again for a different prize?

haha. but seriously, and to your point, the current system is not very good at all at reacting to global crises. Nations act selfishly, and individuals and the charities they work through aren't enough. something has to change. as far as what though, and how to remove the influence of money - it's really hard to say. you might start here in the U.S. with a constitutional amendment overriding the Citizen's United ruling and implementing some serious campaign finance reform, but in today's politics it seems impossible to amend the constitution for anything, and the Supreme Court changes very slowly and unpredicatably. you might try to take political action, but with no money or power, it's hard. look at Occupy Wall Street and how that fizzled out. As you point out, the current system is already set up!

So, I guess I'm not sure, what do you think can be done to change things?

Also, are you entirely sure that some things aren't getting better? Consider the world on Jan. 1, 1914. In some ways the economic model was a lot worse: unfettered capitalism with non-existent workers' rights. Some people argue that in every day and age, people complained that the world looked like it was going to hell in a handbasket. I'm not sure I'm one of them, but it's interesting. Maybe the world always has been a dystopia, and we're just now approaching the most serious implications of it.

[David]

Sure the conditions of the worker are better and there have been improvements along the way. The improvements are slipping away though, and without a radical change in nearly every aspect of human organization. The global crisis's, of which best case scenario may have already passed us by, will most likely cost humanity much of the mental progress we've acquired so far, not to mention many lives. I believe the current argument to be off by more than a few degrees. I have a rudimentary paper at the end of my last book that outlines a whole new way of looking at the problem, including the realization of why our problems exist. Though, I'm afraid it would take quite a bit of thinking to finish and implement. Also, a paradigm shift in what we value as a species may also be required, which would include a change in the economic model, of course. Some say our extinction appears to be inevitable, I say why not try something extreme? The dystopia is ahead of us, it is up to us to avert disaster while we still have the time. Why not want more than what we see is not enough? Why not care about what really matters? And maybe humanity has been fighting for survival for all of recorded history, we tend to see overall direction and react to it. The species is young and still needs to learn its environment, perhaps the warnings come from there.

[H.M.]

Interesting, I would definitely agree that some of the improvements are slipping away. They say that income inequality and the real buying power of the minimum wage are the worst they've been in a long time. And I absolutely believe society needs to make drastic changes while there's still time.

The problem I feel though is the problem in taking collective action. A lot of us can see the handwriting on the wall, but how do you implement real, lasting change? How do you motivate others? It seems to me that a lot of us with big ideas ultimately have to accept that we can only change the world for the better on a much smaller scale - like our local soup kitchen.

I'm curious though about your ideas. when you say something drastic and extreme, are you talking about a revolution? political, ideas, values - or all three? is it at all possible to paraphrase some of the ideas in your paper here? Difficult - I know.

[David]

I am talking about in the mind first and in our environment second. Violence is to be avoided if possible, even at the cost of myself. Though I'm a realist and know that those running our system are endangering our lives and self defense may be necessary. In so many ways what I created advances the situation I would be doing a disservice to it to try and sum it up here. Email me and I'll send it to you. The one thing I will say is, it is no more or no less than what I thought it needed to be, in ways that may not be comprehend at first. 79domon(at)gmail.com