05/16/2007: "Guest Editorial"

Please, Let’s Control Ourselves
ig_Steve_Ludwig-2 (52k image)

By Steve Ludwig

Recently, while standing in front of the Lopez Village Market, collecting signatures for the Storm Water Referendum, I was again impressed, as at many similar situations, by the knowledge, understanding and concern of the average person about the application of political power both locally and globally. Equally impressive, however, is their flat refusal to become involved in any way with our existing ruling institutions. Clearly, something new is needed to allow people put their knowledge to work.

People are not apathetic or ignorant, as the conventional wisdom would have it. Their disgust with the existing power structure is well founded. It’s an ineffective system to begin with, but it’s also biased against the interests of the vast majority of people.

Take global warming for instance. Here is a perfect example that shows more clearly than anything so far the complete inability of existing institutions to clean up the messes they make.

Can anyone seriously imagine governments, political parties, NGOs, financial institutions, etc., etc., actually doing anything other than attempting to profit from this situation while making it worse? All these structures were created to cause and profit from the very disasters we see happening every day. It’s as if we are thrown into a situation of needing to plant a garden, but our only tools are bulldozers!

The task before us then, is to invent a new way-of-being-together. A way entirely outside the state apparatus, which protects the "vulnerable classes" from the state, but enables us to act upon the state.

Here is a possible starting point. The new SJC Charter gave us the right of initiative and referendum in County matters. If 100 people (approximately 1% of the adult, sentient population) were to agree to collect 50 signatures each for every initiative or referendum and to help write and introduce those initiatives and referendums, we can effectively govern ourselves, ensure the fair and equal distribution of freedoms and privileges, and protect the things we hold in common.

If you do the math you’ll see that 100 people getting 50 signatures each is way more than what’s needed, but it’s important to guard against re-creating the present situation where a very small number of people indeed force their will on everyone else.

There will always be those who insist that we all act out the role prescribed by the high school civics teacher - "Elect some well-funded elite and submit to their rule." These people either completely misapprehend the world in which they live, are getting a piece of the action, or are suffering from a raging case of Stockholm syndrome. 200 years of US history clearly shows that "representative democracy" is neither representative nor democratic. It’s just a system for handing out freedoms and benefits for some at the expense of others.

No matter how libertarian your sentiments, the fact remains that giving more freedom to some means denying it to others. We see this every day at the local level: Allowing some to build tall buildings means denying sunlight to others who live in the shadow of those buildings.

Policies that benefit the real estate and construction industries impose greater living costs on existing residents. Ruling elites, of course, hate initiatives and referendums or "mob rule" as they often call it. It throws their schemes into disarray and makes the carefully stage-managed and expensive election process irrelevant. They’ll never stop telling us how irresponsible we are when we seek to govern ourselves.

Getting 50 signatures is a piece of cake. After a while you’ll know who to go to and where the best places for gathering are. The goal is to make this a continuous process - an integral part of everyday life like weeding or doing the wash, just one of the things necessary for health, safety and dignity. Nor should we diminish the importance of acting locally.

Every movement or idea that has benefited working people has started in a small community, among a small group of people. People in other places see the success, say "we can do that" and it spreads.
If you think this is a good idea, or if you have a better one, please contact me at thesiself@yahoo.com or call and we’ll start to build the network.

(Steve Ludwig lives on Lopez and is a former Freeholder and a candidate for County Commissioner)