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Freedom
it is so important |
Relax, you are free to think, no partisan bias, this is a political party-free zone....<
Propositions
Naturally the eventual purpose of an activity such as E-mancipation is to come up with practical propostions for change in the way we manage our political affairs. There are countless "political philosophies" and there are many political parties who have a membership which tends to be somewhat intellectually shackled by party policy and this often leads to an inability of such people to recognise or acknowledge better propositions because they are at variance with "party policy".
Unresponsive system
On the other hand we cannot all be "politicians" since we need to get on with our lives. In reality very few people spend time trying to change things via the normal politcal routes because these are time consuming and generally non-responsive. In the end most get the feeling no one in fact listens or cares and therefore it is a waste of time. This state of affairs where most members of the public are reluctant to "get involved" is a measure of the degree to which politicians and political parties have sucked away the direct involvement of people in their own affairs.
Destroying confidence & freedom
"Inspirational appeal
During the seventeenth century life did not always default to people enduring the excesses of a corrupt and sometimes cruel political establishment. People did not always continue to do things as they had always been done for fear that suggesting improvements might attract attention and perhaps a punishment or two. There were many chinks of light, illegal pamphlets and exchanges between people causing many hearts to rejoice at inspirational ideas concerning the liberation of the people of England.
Universal suffrage - a government by the people
In particular a wonderful concept arose that people should be governed by a Parliament of their popular choice. Such a concept was justified by Colonel Thomas Rainborough, a participant in the Putney Debates organized by the Levellers at the Church of St Mary the Virgin in Putney in the County of Surrey, in October and November 1647. He stated:
“...for really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, Sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government; and I do think that the poorest man in England is not bound in a strict sense to that government that he hath not had a voice to put himself under...”
Taken from: Chapter 4, A Propostion 1649, page 33 in "The Briton's Quest for Freedom - Our unfinished journey." HPC.
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This has led to a serious weakening of the confidence of people to try and address issues of importance to them and their families. This is an intolerable state of affairs because it constrains initiative and detroys individual free expression it erode freedom itself.
Pathways to sanity
 Historic evidence shows that in Britain, as far back as the early 1600s, when the people had almost no political status, they did not have the vote, there was no radio, television or Internet, they were able to make a very effective impact through the writing of pamplets. Originally pamphlets were illegal publications and yet they grew in number and influence pushing back the boundaries of tyranny until books and pamphlets because decriminalised. The process of pamphlet writing and dissemination was a slow hand to hand process but over time it helped disseminate and popularise many of the seminal political ideas which in the end led to change.
Extraordinarily today we face a situation where political parties, MPs and governance have regained a modus operandi where they essentially ignore the views of the public to such an extent that we have governments with Parliamentary majorities but only 19% of the electorate's support. The fact that such tiny factional governments can impose their legislation on the rest of the population, the 89% who never voted for that government, is a form of tyranny. In reality the direct participation of the population in decisions which affect them is decreasing and not increasing and it is as if we are in a time warp going backwards through time.
Reinitiation of popular common sense movements
 If we shrug our shoulders and give up we basically fail to secure and strengthen our own rights to free expression and those of our children. We essentially hand over our whole future to people in political parties who look more to their party than to the interests of the people. We propose a better alternative. We encourage people to ingore the current corrupt system of governance. Don't bother trying to involve your local MP, especially if he or she are members of one of the main political parties and we all know petitions tend to go nowhere. Liberate yourself by refusing to rely upon those who after all are not going to help you. Become more self-reliant and independent in a way which help gathers support for the resolution of your concerns. We encourage anyone with a concern to write to us with a view to preparing a short pamphlet setting this out. If your pamphlet is not offensive nor libellous we guarantee to provide national dissemination through the E-mancipation General Assembly Bulletin Board. Pamphlets can carry the author's name or the name of non-political associations or movements or on the other hand we will not provide information on authors when this is requested.
Why bother?
When E-mancipation was initiated we had intended to create a voting assembly using the Internet. We asked CybaCity to assess this proposition and we fortunately included the question as to the most effective means of dissemination of proposals for change. The outcome of this review was that Internet voting is unavoidably biased and people still prefer to use paper. Thus petitions, for example, which provide options fo e-voting or posting in a printed letter find that 3-4 times as many people prefer the printed letter mode. On the other hand, political parties and espcially government parties advance their own agendas by hiding facts and not addressing certain arguments. The issue for bringing about change is therefore getting the facts, the concerns and the propositions for solution disseminated through the population.
The Putney Debates
The Putney Debates were a series of discussions between factions of the New Model Army and the Levellers concerning a new constitution for England. The debates were held at the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Putney, Surrey, in October and November 1647.
The Levellers made use of pamphlets to disseminate their opinions. |
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The British media tend to be led by the nose by political party public relations both in terms of the leads they provide as well as even the reactions and criticism attracted from the media; there is a tunnel vision which plays into the maintenace of the status quo of the power of party over the people. Therefore, vitally, the Internet provides a very powerful communications vehicle for documents, providing facts in the form of pamphlets which can be printed out by anyone and distributed by hand. Indeed, paradoxically the true revolution of dissemination of information is the role of the Inrternet like a low cost postal service. This is something our compatriots in the 17th century did not have and yet they were so effective in bringing about change. This is why we abandoned our original proposals for petitions and e-voting and we have given emphasis to pamphlets and propositions. The key message is that change will come about if people share concerns and propositions are developed which are reasonable, feasible and likely to work. This is of course all quite obvious but sometimes technology encourages people to imagine it can do more than is really practical.
Everyone has common sense
The people of the United Kingdom have been raised in an environment within which there are concepts of right and wrong and of the imperative of maintaining individual freedom. Everyone in the United Kingdom has an innate common sense and therefore everyone in this country is eminantly qualified to reflect upon and identify matters of concern to them in our political system. This is why we have faith in the ability of anyone to initiate change by writing a pamphlet on what they feel is wrong with the system. Once such a concern is registered it is possible for either the same person, or others, to seek to develop and consolidate the proposition and to propose solutions. We know that this rational and logical process has a very well established track record in British history and has been an effective way to spread rational argument and debate in a peaceful and objective way. Because pamphlets are open documents it is fairly difficult for them to be instruments of hidden agendas pushed by factions and political parties simply because although pamphlets maybe have an indetified author they do not really have ownership. Pamphlets represent a rational exposition of a concern and the degree to which others contribute and comment make that concern more focused and relevant. Sometimes the relevance is to a group within society and often to all in society, it does not really matter. What matters is that people's concerns find articulation in an open forum and that the dissemination is low cost and convenient. This will in many cases lead to the accumunlation of popular support and eventually change in favour of the interests of the people concerned.
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