Index

Gaian Democracy – A New Way Forward

Reviewed by Peter McCaig.

(I reviewed this book in the last issue; but I still think this review worth your attention, and hope it may encourage you to buy the book and/or get your local library to stock it.– BL )

But the good news is, it doesn’t have to be this way -

Despite it’s pandering to increased citizens rights, the draft European Constitution is simply the latest attempt to centralise power and homogenise systems of control to the detriment of the citizens it is meant to be empowering. The power of our current political cadres, as the latest Schumacher briefing ‘Gaian Democracies’ brilliantly illustrates, relies on their ability to make you feel dissociated and bewildered. According to the authors Roy Madron and John Jopling such a defeatist attitude among a high proportion of the citizenship is exactly what serves the ‘Global Monetocracy’ - a financial system controlled by a global elite who pretty much order things to suit themselves and ensure their own continuing pre-eminence over all aspects of human endeavour. Such a definition of course, is nothing new, and is a common accusation of conspiracy theorists. To their credit, however, Jopling and Madron do not buy into such paranoia and blame scenarios and instead soberly show up the central problem for what it is – a systemic failure.

Having only recently evolved from hunter-gatherer societies we are not well equipped to think in the long term. Short-term greed dominates our survival strategies and we tend to form hierarchical institutions based on command and control. Our mass societies have developed on the back of a debt-based financial system that preserves the privileges of the elite, co-opts the aspirations of the moderately well off and ensures the impoverishment of the many. At the same time it is destroying the earth’s ecosystem it is compelled to consume through its need for ever more ‘growth’. To say such a system is unsustainable would merely be stating the obvious. To understand why it is so pervasive and so resistant to change is the profound insight of this book.

Leading with a concise and accurate account of how our society is organised, exposing its shams and hypocrisies - not least our so-called system of ‘representative democracy’ – this book is as insightful and revelatory as any I have read. It pulls together strands from previous writings of many luminaries of social and political thought and manages to link them together in a way that shows the overall pattern and instruments of the deception we are all bewildered by. One of the startling facts reiterated in this book is that because of the US dollar’s pre-eminence as a ‘reserve’ currency America is effectively receiving a $425 billion per annum tribute from the rest of the world, while propagandising it’s generosity in ‘giving’ $10 billion in aid. As the authors' say ‘not so much a free lunch as a free army, navy and air force.’ Just this chapter alone as a kind of primer to the global brainwash would make it worth the purchase, but the book is not meant merely as a critique. This analysis merely sets up the authors’ proposition of a way out.

To illustrate the systemic nature of the problem and to point towards the solution the book introduces us to systems theory, with explanations of some of its terminology such as ‘wicked’ and ‘tame’ problems. Tame problems are easily diagnosed and cured. Wicked problems are those that resist any direct attempt to cure them or merely divert the problem to another area. These demand a different tack than the repressive or interventionist approaches commonly prescribed to alleviate them. Needless to say our society is riddled with wicked problems which are the ‘emergent properties’ of an ailing system. Boldly and radically the authors do not advise any further cure or adjustment to the system – all such attempts are futile – but it’s wholesale displacement by a new system based upon a self organising people-powered model which embraces a constant process of individual engagement in decision making and opinion forming. Or as they call it Gaian Democracy.

Gaia theory, originally coined by James Lovelock, sees the Earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems as a single evolving, self-regulating ecosystem. Applying its principles to human society we can view each individual or ‘holon’ like a player in a football team capable of thinking and acting independently, yet incapable of achieving success without the co-operation of his team or ‘holarchy’. Each team in turn forms a holon within its holarchy of a league and so on. This model would form the basis of ‘network government’ where each level is constantly informed and shaped by inputs from its feeder holons. Thus rule would be from the bottom up, not the top down, with each decision being shaped by the unique characteristics of the diverse situations of the real world that the individual holons interact with. It occurs to me that the obvious application for such a system in our own constituency is the current dilemma about what to do with the House of Lords. That it isn’t being seriously discussed is probably an indication of how threatening it would be to the current status quo of conventionally elected politicians. Such a system would inherently have more authority as it would be more representative of what real concerned active individuals wanted from government. This would in fact be the true ‘commons’ rather than the one we have at the moment which, ruled by cabinet as it is, seems determined that any reform should enshrine their own powers rather than dilute them.

What we are constantly told by those with a vested interest in maintaining the current hierarchical system is that ordinary people are incapable of organising themselves. That devolution of power would lead to anarchy. That people must be ruled in order to stop their worst tendencies from running wild. Gaian Democracy turns this on its head by saying that the worst case scenario is that which we are currently facing. If ordinary people do not reengage in a redesigned political process then we are about to face wholesale systems collapse. Indeed, though it may already be too late to prevent impending ecological catastrophes, the only method that has any hope of salvaging something from the wreckage is genuine participatory democracy built upon this new systems model.

Several examples of successful organisations that have been using this approach of informing, empowering, and enabling everyone involved are given in the book. The chief of these in the political sphere is Porto Alegre in Brazil, which from a position of near breakdown has since 1989 become one of the best run cities in the world with a highly motivated and satisfied citizenry. Inspired by liberating leadership the people of Porto Alegre are allowed direct involvement in its participatory budget and as a result the city has thrived while becoming ever more efficient, adaptive and responsive to societal and environmental needs. It can only bode well for the whole of Brazil that Lula da Silva of the Brazilian Workers Party has been swept to power on the back of such accomplishments.

One of the main distinctions made by the authors is between movements of social defence and those of social change. Though anti war or anti globalisation protest activities have had various successes in holding up or mitigating the effects of the Monetocracy’s policies in these areas, these are limited and temporary effects. Because they are aimed merely at reforming or alleviating the systems’ abuses such ‘defence’ strategies are ultimately co-opted by a system which is highly effective at absorbing and turning it’s opposition to its own designs. Take the ’92 Rio Earth Summit process, which ten years later had become the business as usual Johannesburg Summit on ‘Sustainable Development,’ a confab on continued exploitation of the earth’s resources while paying lip service to the environment it is intent on endlessly commodifying.

Unflinchingly the authors do not shy away from criticism of NGOs and aid organisations who believe the way forward under the auspices of the UN is to reform and regulate the triumvirate of nation states, transnational corporations and financial institutions which control the Global Monetocracy. Such a tactic is bound to fail as a result of many of the NGO’s being funded by the monetocracy and incapable of biting the hand that feeds them. Furthermore they lack any political legitimacy; because of their funding they stay out of the political arena and cannot seek a popular mandate for constructive change. Their campaigns for change are therefore simply defence strategies incapable of harnessing popular support for fundamental change.

That a constituency is primed for such a political movement is, however, one of the main assertions of the authors. The Anti Globalisation movement has of late, through the Social Forum process amongst others, been searching for a consensus of what it is that they are for. Or as the authors would have it seeking to move from defensive strategies to strategies for change. Far from being a Pie in the Sky dream of utopian idealism the authors contend that such a revolutionary change is within our grasp. As the abuses and deficiencies of the current system become ever more apparent and appalling, the number of people who would readily adopt and engage with a new system becomes ever greater. This constituency is formed of three main groups – disaffected insiders, the people who work within the system and know it doesn’t work, who are frustrated and ready to mutiny; the angry outsiders who are the main observers and critics of the system; and of course the victims, the workers, peasants and dispossessed who suffer disproportionately from the systems’ abuses. Given that these easily comprise a majority of the world’s population all that is lacking is a political system to engage and empower them. This powerful proposal for Gaian Democracy could just be the central tenet that can bring them all together.

Most interestingly, though it is to be expected that there will be resistance to such a profound change from some parts of the elite it is not necessarily to their detriment. Unlike conventional revolutions which require the overthrow of the ruling classes and reinstalling a new regime which basically adopts a similar model of command and control, this is an organic movement based upon people-power which offers a radical new way of thinking and relating to our human and natural environments. Depending upon the attitude they take, losing some of their power while becoming part of a more sustainable society should not be too hard a sell to any but the most reptilian mindsets. Otherwise they will find that their power base just withers away as the majority of the world adopts new political and economic models of exchange which neatly side-step their raison d’être and legitimacy. Our only anxiety should be that we can achieve this before Gaia herself is too severely compromised.

By John Jopling and Roy Madron

Schumacher Briefing 9. Green Books

160 pp. £8 pb

ISBN 1 903998 28 X

Available by mail order from www.greenbooks.co.uk

Peter McCaig is editor of Greenscene Magazine

pmccaig@onet.co.uk

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