If Ordinary Citizens Really were the Bosses

If Ordinary Citizens Really were the Bosses
China Post Editorial
by Bevin Chu
June 15, 2009

On "democratic" Taiwan we have a slogan, "Lao bai xing si tou jia!" It means "Ordinary citizens are the bosses!" It means that government officials, elected and unelected alike, are the hired hands. This slogan is repeated mechanically by Blue and Green Camp pundits and politicians alike. Unfortunately like most political slogans, it is a textbook example of the Big Lie.

Most pundits tell this Big Lie out of wishful thinking. They know perfectly well that the people aren't the bosses under a democracy. But they earnestly believe they ought to be. Therefore they repeat this Big Lie religiously, in the desperate hope that if only they wish hard enough, their wish just might come true.

Most politicians, on the other hand, tell this Big Lie out of cynical calculation. They know perfectly well that the people aren't the bosses under a democracy. What's more, they desperately hope they never will be. They repeat this Big Lie in the hope that the people will believe it, and therefore remain content with the Orwellian status quo. After all if the people realize they aren't really the bosses, they just might want to renegotiate the "social contract."

According to the dictionary "a servant is someone who serves another, either voluntarily or under compulsion."

Does this describe your friendly neighborhood tax collector? Particularly at tax time, when he comes to collect "his money?" Internal Revenue Service whistle blowers tell us this is how IRS agents think of your earnings -- as "their money."

Does your tax collector really serve you, voluntarily or under compulsion? Or do you serve him, involuntarily and under compulsion?

According to the dictionary "a servant is subject to the direction and control of an employer."

Does this describe your "democratically-elected representative," as he hurtles down the boulevard in his long black limousine? Particularly as his motorcycle escort sternly orders you aside?

Is your "democratically-elected representative" really thinking of himself as your servant? Is he really thinking of you as his master? Is he really subject to your direction and control?

No? Then how did such an outrage come to be? And more importantly, how can such an outrage be eliminated?

The answer is simpler than you think.

To restore private citizens to the status of masters, and public servants to the status of servants, private citizens must retain the power to hire and fire their public servants at their unilateral discretion, at a moment's notice, precisely the way they hire and fire their private servants.

Are you required to provide your private servant with a four year "term of office?" Are you required to conduct impeachment proceedings against your private servant before you fire him for non-performance of duties or for stealing the silverware?

No? Then why must you do so with your public servants?

Private citizens must never be deprived of the power to fire their public servants, precisely the way they fire their private servants. If they are, then their public servants have already turned the tables on them and become their public masters, whether they realize it or not, whether they admit it or not.

The harsh reality is that people get the government they deserve, or at least deserve the government they get. If people find themselves living under a system in which public servants are in fact the public masters of private citizens, it is because they are content or at least resigned to living under such a system.

In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, without a shot being fired. Why?

Because the consciousness of a critical mass of the people in the Warsaw Pact nations was transformed, seemingly overnight. It was as if the populace of the Eastern Bloc woke up one morning, in unison, and said to themselves, "Hey! Communism doesn't work! I changed my mind."

We know of course it didn't actually happen that way. When Marxism-Leninism finally collapsed under its own weight, it merely looked as if it happened overnight. In fact it took many decades for the realization that Communism was economically impracticable, not to mention morally wrong, to penetrate the minds of enough people to bring the Berlin Wall crashing down.

And so it is with democracy. The consciousness of a critical mass of ordinary citizens living under democracy must be transformed. People must wake up one morning, in unison, and say to themselves, "Hey! Democracy isn't working! We were supposed to be the masters. So how did we end up as the servants?"

The design of a political system in which ordinary citizens are the bosses in fact, and not merely in name, is a monumental undertaking. It can hardly be covered in a single newspaper editorial. But the key to meaningful political transformation, is a long overdue transformation in human consciousness.