THE COMPETENT CITIZEN

(On Democracy Devouring itself)

Shawn Rosenburg, Psychologist, in a recent paper outlined how Democracy is Devouring itself.

The Elites (those who rule us) are losing control of the citizens, a process accelerated by the rise of the Internet and Social Media platforms.

Right Wing Populism, with its simple ‘concrete’ explanations and prescriptions, is on the rise and will increasingly become more authoritarian.

The ‘Incompetent Citizen’, unable to grasp the complexities and abstract themes that underpin Democracy, are allowing its destruction.

The only slim hope we have is for the Incompetent Citizen, through education, to gain understanding and return control of states to the Elites.

 Mr. Rosenburg has very accurately described the state of Western Liberal Democracies and their domination by Elites, who are becoming increasingly global and increasingly integrated across politics, media and business. These Elites go to the same schools, often Oxbridge or the Ivy Leagues, marry each other, run the global financial system and stand against each other for the leadership of countries.

Over the last 3 decades these Elites have crafted a world in which there is growing interdependence between governing structures of nations and a massive concentration of wealth in the Elites who control the structures that support ‘Democracy’.

Hand in hand with Democracy is the Free Market, underpinned by a close relative of the Incompetent Citizen: ’the Incompetent Consumer.’ This unfortunate subspecies of Homo Sapien act to promote the interest of elites, and must trust that the structures—labyrinthine and incomprehensible as they are—are acting in their interest, and if they just trust in them then all will be well.

But all is not well. Incompetent Citizen and Incompetent Consumer have seen a steady erosion of their status even as the Elites become too big to fail. GDP and profits grow, the stock market  thrives, even as the avenues for survival and possible success, (maybe even a break into the sub-elites) become more narrow.

Desperate for a solution—an escape—the Incompetent Citizen has turned to the Right Wing Populists in the United States in the Person of Donald Trump. An element of bamboozlement is at work, but after three decades of the alternatives culminating in the Presidency of the first Black man to hold that high office, there has been no discernible difference in how the State has operated.

Mr. Rosenburg offers a glimmer of hope: the answer is in Education, and although this he admits has been tried before without success, we must do it differently. The problem with education generally is that it is designed to support and extend the elites, and is available to  only those needed to perpetuate the system. Enough people are educated at each level to provide the necessary skills to support the Elites. The level you attain determines what access you have and the highest levels are rationed by price; being so expensive as to put it beyond the reach of most, and a fair number who reach the summit (a University Degree) have so much debt that they are obliged to conform to the system for the remainder of their lives. On the other hand, those who are already in the Elites, or who by whatever means can muster the cash, can not only afford an education, but can ensure that their offspring gain access to the most prestigious of the Universities, and therefore remain in or are admitted to the Elites.

Incompetent Citizen and Incompetent Consumer have a problem of which they are aware, but do not know how to address. In desperation, they vote for Donald Trump and Brexit. They exist surrounded by junk no one needs, bought on Credit which can never be repaid, living on benefits, payday loans, and Pawn Broker accounts; addicted to substances prescribed by their doctors and made by reputable companies. Today is the same as yesterday and tomorrow will be no different, the price of no up is the promise of no down. The most enterprising steal all they can and spend just as furiously, prioritising luxury, living in the moment for the moment.

There is a solution, which does not require us all to be geniuses. If Democracy can only be supported by an elite, if profit can only be made by trickery, then Shawn Rosenburg is correct; they will Devour themselves. If however, there is a way for the ordinary person to achieve competence, then maybe we can have better outcomes. 

We have to be able to think clearly. This sounds simple, but is not. Our inability to think clearly has been understood and exploited for some time now, especially by marketeers and politicians. Advertising has raised this manipulation of our brains and thought processes to a Science, and in Books like Nudge, Nobel Prize winner Richard H. Thaler has outlined ways to trick us into actions (which are, of course, beneficial to us). It is widely known that there is no such animal as rational man (Competent Citizen), yet we pretend that there is. It can only be that it suits the elites to pretend rationality exists, and they then work their dark magic to gain desired outcomes.

To save Democracy and Capitalism (of the old sort, before the commoditisation of money) citizens and consumers have to be given an understanding of how their brain functions and the tools to think. This is not an education thing. It is a huge challenge as clear thinking has to become cultural. The mind and the body are not separate things; you cannot influence the one without affecting the other. Emotions are a powerful part of thinking; accept them and give them their place. Learn (through meditation and visualisation) to control that moment between stimulus and response, be able to choose a response, and learn to reprogram the subconscious for more appropriate reflex responses. 

Learn to recognise the stimuli, to recognise their source, and to determine the response it is designed to elicit. Then choose if that is appropriate, if it is for you, and if it is in your interest.

Value your emotions, value your experiences, and test them with the new information you are receiving. What is concrete and what is abstract? Where and when will the abstract become concrete, and what is it likely to look like in the end?

Mr. Rosenburg is right; if we do not get competence in citizenry, then the future is bleak indeed.

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