Reading the political blogs, papers, talking to friends, and colleagues there seems to be large amounts of anger with the government, however behind this there also seems to be a high level of dissatisfaction with the overall political system. Again and again people say that there needs to be change and it should come from the ‘grass roots’ or it needs to be ‘bottom up’. Top down solutions and grand plans are rejected as unworkable and more of the same.
I feel exactly the same, the same tired divisions and solutions seem dull and empty, the media political knock about seems too loud, dull, insincere, and stupid. What I want is something uniting, common sense, simple, passionate and inclusive. You know something I can get behind, that will give me hope, give me a role, help me to feel we are getting somewhere.
I am not alone. Last night I was reading messages posted at the Telegraph site and at the Daily Maybe, the content of the views expressed were as far apart as possible but underpinning this was the shared message, the government can’t get more rubbish but there has to be a more ‘real’ way of doing politics.
Yes grass roots, yes more ownership, but what does this actually mean? There seems to be such a strange contradiction. More ownership must mean more consensus, more knowledge, more control, agreed unique solutions, which are owned by the people who they effect. The forming ‘world views’ in these different communities; Tory and Green for example are each becoming more solid and coherent. However the content of these worlds are completely out of phase with each other. To make matters worse the many problems that these worlds face are complex, systemic, and inter-connected. They cannot be resolved locally, they can only be solved by widely adopted coordinated action. On one hand we want to belong to exclusive alliances of the willing and on the other all we need to solve problems that require us all to behave in a similar way.
‘You are all individuals’ said Python’s Brian of Nazareth – ‘Yes we are all individuals’!
Filed under: Speaking Up, Taking Action, Vision | Tagged: ownership, political parties, politics, seeking consensus
