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Kincaid's Site

Participation in the New World

Through advertising, public relations, and other sophisticated techniques, those at the top are acquiring the ability to manipulate public opinion and, through that, to direct the development of the community as they wish.

Meanwhile, what are they doing with the resulting power? Whatever will bring them more wealth and power. The whole system is based on systematic irresponsibility. Those with the wealth spend a small part of it eliminating all challenges to their power -- and then use the power to gain more wealth.

But then, we all know that, don't we?

The questions is, can we find another way?

We need to subject the key decisions of modern society to "political responsibility" -- making sure the people in day-to-day control must ultimately answer to us for the decisions they make. At the same time, we have to provide mechanisms by which anyone who wants to participate in the community's self-governance may do so.

For that, we need three things:

• We need democratic reforms of the government. The United States especially is set up to stop the people from making trouble for the wealthy special interests that really run things. To turn things around, we need serious political reform, including changes in our electoral system (such as proportional representation), public funding of elections, and guaranteed access to the media. (Check out our page of resources on Electoral Action and Reform, mostly geared to the situation in the United States.)
• We need democratic control of the economy. The wealthy interests must themselves be brought under popular control. This does not necessarily mean government ownership. We can also encourage the formation of worker-, consumer-, and community-owned enterprises, such as cooperatives. We can also give the "stakeholders" in existing enterprises -- such as employees and local communities -- a right to a say in how the enterprises are run. (Check out our page on Alternative Economics.)
• We need to open up the media to public access. This is why the development of the internet is so exciting to a lot of people. Of course, we will have to defend access to the net from the corporations -- I mention no names -- who want to control it in their own interests. We also need to open up existing media to more access and defeat those who want to bring even more concentration than we now have.

In the end, keeping up democracy will be a constant struggle. But it is one that we have to win if we are to have a future worth having.

Creating a sustainable world will require the creative contribution of as many people as we can draw on -- creativity that must take the form of full participation. At the same time, a truly sustainable world will only work if it "pays off" for the vast majority -- ideally all -- of the community, and that can only happen if the people have the final say in how the community is run. So we have a page on Sustainability Issues.

No social equality can be sustained without something resembling an "equality" of power -- in other words, without political democracy extending into most spheres of social life. At the same time, there can be no mass participation without equality of access to the levers of power. So we have a page on Equality Issues.

Just as members of the community cannot maintain their equality without holding on to control of the life of the community, so they cannot ensure that no one takes away their personal freedom without holding on to the levers of power. At the same time, participatory democracy will not work if individuals are not free to ask their own questions, define their own values, and form their own alliances. So we have a page on Freedom Issues.

If they are to survive, traditional cultures must assure that they respect the freedom and equality of their people, and that can only be achieved if those people are in control of their communities. At the same time, control of the community cannot rest in the hands of the people unless the cultures by which they define themselves are respected and valued. So we have a page on Multiculturalism Issues.

• Women's Rights in the U.S. and the rest of the world,
• Human Rights, and
• Labor Rights

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