I
join these three books because of their common unveiling of
who-rules-for-whose-benefit, across cultures and time. Parenti shows
an ancient example, the destruction of early Roman Democracy by
oligarchic forces. Chomsky illustrates the continuation of
plutocracy, or elite rule, in our time, despite and in opposition to
the advances of Democracy. Roy provides confirmation that this
struggle is international, in this case India.
It
was news to me that democracy (a very limited form to be sure) was
operant in early Rome. Nor did I know it was demolished when Caesar
was killed in 44 B.C. Parenti portrays him as a reformer, limited but
still siding with the common people on many issues and being
assassinated for his trouble. The prime consequence of the
assassination was a civil war that saw the end of democracy for
hundreds of years. Democracy had long struggled to supplant monarchy,
making an overt return politically unwise. The rulers after Caesar,
kings in all but name, took on the title Emperor, coopting the
prestige of Caesar by taking his name and ruling Rome, quite
undemocratically, for hundreds of years. So today, the Italian media
billionaire Bertolucci labors to undo whatever democratic gains he
can, yearning I suppose for the good
ol' days when
his class ruled without challenge.
Rome's
very limited democracy was hoarded by a ruling class which may have
squabbled among its various factions but definitely excluded what
they would have called the “rabble”, the common people, ordinary
workers, women and slaves. The financial manipulators of the time
were fond of a scheme where they would lure less advantaged
“citizens” into great debt such that, by law, they could then
enslave them. On the other end of this game was the freeing of
slaves, also by law, but used primarily to unburden slaveholders of
obligations to feed and house those whose working lives were over,
due to age or infirmity. The primary concern of this ruling class was
to maintain and expand their privileged lifestyles. They objected to,
and assassinated, Caesar, claiming that he was ambitious of
destroying democracy. Their true motives were as obvious as were
those of George Bush as he claimed to be spreading democracy. There
were few objections to tyranny when their class privileges were not
threatened.
Dissidents
in Rome faced a pretty brutal and lethal response from the
self-appointed “authorities”. In the U.S. today, consequences for
dissent are relatively benign, depending on how far you're willing to
push it. Just standing out on the corner with a sign denouncing drone
warfare, nothing's likely to happen beyond the occasional middle
finger from passing rightwingers and you might be infiltrated by
taxpayer-funded, Constitution-defying spies. Occupy a public space
and you face pepper spray and a weekend in jail. Whistle-blowers like
Bradley Manning, Snowden and Assange start to feel the effects of
riling the beast that pretends to worship freedom. It's good to keep
in mind that this situation where citizens are relatively free to
dissent is a hard-fought legacy of activists who labored in difficult
and dangerous times, advancing democracy inch by inch.
In
India, the world's largest Democracy seems firmly in the same hands,
or worse. Criticizing the high court can get you jail time, as it did
Arundhati Roy. She'd probably still be there if not for her celebrity
as a best-selling novelist. According to Roy, leading Indian
politicians are, “...either members or admirers of a right-wing,
ultra-nationalist Hindu guild which has openly admired Hitler and his
methods.” These are the overseers of India's nuclear weapons.
Arch-enemy Pakistan seems no wiser but also blusterous possessors of
nukes. And into this tinder-box the U.S, sends incendiary drones as
if to assert that we of the west too have learned nothing from the
devastating violence of the twentieth century and its pandora's box
of weapons of mass destruction.
As
Eckhart Tolle has said about consciousness, “There are many
questions but only one answer.” And as Einstein warned many years
ago, “With the splitting of the atom everything changed, save our
way of thinking. And thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.”
Until we commit fully to non-violent resolution of conflict, with all
its implications for justice and environmentally sustainable
practice, we sail an accelerating, Armageddonesque trajectory.
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