The lunatics are taking over the asylum
The masses must be respected, for they are the masters now
The people are on the march. Betrayed by their rulers, they demand the right to determine their fate themselves. Their chastened leaders quail before them, and embark on a process of competitive abdication. Recall of erring MPs, open primaries, electoral reform and parliamentary oversight will no longer be sufficient. Nothing less than direct democracy will meet the needs of the hour. Are our destinies to be decided by people's petitions, continual referendums, citizens' juries, perpetual push-button voting or all of these and more?
Beyond the political class, the great and the good have politely concurred with the prevailing mood. It is time to trust the citizenry, they murmur. They should beware. The current eruption of mass revolt extends far beyond politics. It threatens to engulf most of the many and varied elites that have for so long called the shots in societies like our own.
The media, for example, may have fomented the current mutiny, but they have as much to fear as any from the tiger they have been riding. Their audiences are crumbling as readers and viewers turn away from expert discourse. They believe their own efforts are as worthy as those of professionals, and they would rather air them than attend to the guidance of their betters.
The nation now looks to amateurs rather than artistes for its entertainmentsIncreasingly, everywhere, the default attitude is 'I could do that'. Everyone knows they could run a bank better than the disgraced bankers, or their child's school better than its useless head. Doctors have come to expect patients to arrive at their surgeries armed with web printouts detailing the diagnoses and prescriptions they will be required to rubber-stamp.
The nation now looks to amateurs rather than artistes for its most successful prime-time entertainments. In the past, TV talent shows were at least judged by panels of experts; now their audiences insist they must themselves cast the die by phoning in their votes.
For several generations, we have called our society democratic. It has not been. The masses merely acquired limited rights of accountability over the complex priesthood that continued to control their lives. Now, they have decided that this priesthood does not deserve its privileges, and they want to usurp its power. Because the principle of democracy is sacrosanct, this demand is irresistible.
Often, of course, the people do indeed know as well as those who lord it over them. The supposedly superior classes have not made such a good fist of running the financial system, invading other people's countries or enforcing our own country's borders. Would mass decision-making have produced worse results? And if people want to bring back capital punishment, how can a democrat object?
Britain's Got Talent is at least as entertaining as was Sunday Night at the London Palladium. These days, a patient can quickly become more knowledgeable about an unusual disease than her harassed GP. Those who paid heed to financial advisers in recent years are likely to be the worse off for it.
All the same, determining the extent of quantitative easing by a nationwide push-button vote might not be ideal. Restocking the National Gallery in accordance with popular tastes would cause some qualms. Not everyone would feel confident if Bono were placed in sole charge of overseas development.
Whether or not the masses are wiser than the privileged, they are certainly no more virtuous. Many of those deploring MPs' misdemeanours would happily pad an insurance claim or pay a builder in cash to avoid VAT.
No matter. The people are not accountable. They do not have to be reasonable, consistent or fair. Yet they must henceforth be respected. For they are the masters now. 
Filed under: Britain's Got Talent, Democracy, Experts, Government, Vote, The public, Mob rule, Great Britain, Elites
About the author
David Cox is a writer and TV producer. He has contributed to the Guardian, Times, Independent, Daily Telegraph, Observer, Sunday Times,... MORE
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Err... "they must henceforth be respected. For they are the masters now" Actually NO, not until we get PR and (dream on) STP (single transferable preference). Until then it'll be "the evil of two (or more) lessers".
Posted by allan kessing at 10:36am on June 22, 2009
Answer to the question at the head of this rather silly article : None of the above : It is "E" - Big Business. Everything else is just froth
Posted by martin gowar at 11:18am on June 22, 2009
behind the froth...........as Iran will have to listen to its masses and given women equality.....so Britain will have to listen to the only solution to its multi-layered crisis - give those of commonwealth citizens indigenous status............a tremendous regenerative move......both of 'em.
Posted by ashcash at 12:55pm on June 22, 2009
Back in the Eighties, the current Speaker would use parliament's free postage system to send his underpants back home to his wife. By the time he returned home at the weekend his laundry was waiting for him, lovingly washed and ironed. This struck me as funny at the time that first I published the story, not least for what it said about the antediluvian conjugal arrangements of a working-class Scottish MP. I thank you Firozali A Mulla
Posted by famulla at 2:13pm on June 22, 2009
But would you want someone who foung either Britain's Got Talent or Sunday Night at the London Palladium having any influence on any decision more important than picking a nose? It annoys and amuses me that so many people diss "Big Business" as if all "Big Businesses" were run by the bogeymen**. They produce most of the things we consume (including essential healthcare products), without them we should all be living in squalor. ** I think it is a legacy of the time when the "gay whales against the bomb" brigade were influencial (amongst the naive).
Posted by TomNightingale at 2:31pm on June 22, 2009
"nationwide push-button vote..." Would that legalise drugs and immediately double the time available for police, halve the population of prisons, and save the economy brazillions, and earn huge income from the excise duties? I hope it would. All problems (well, many) solved. (And less deaths from accidental overdoses too!)
Posted by davidf1412 at 2:34pm on June 22, 2009
Martin Gower has it - right on the button - all of 'em driven by personal ambition and GREED - their motto: :You Can Never Have Enough!" They will never realise the fact that one cannot have continual "growth" on a finite planet with finite resources and a population growth which has now become exponential. Happy thought: It will boil over before the middle of the century and I am most unlikely to be alive at age 125.
Posted by Eric Gamble at 3:36pm on June 22, 2009
We are neither insane nor lunatics. We the people, have the right and are the government and have been for many, many years. The people have been lax in their responsibility to govern and look at the mess, that is now the world. For too long, we looked to our 'betters,' those who proclaimed themselves smarter, richer, better educated and more privileged than ourselves. No longer! We know now that the 'masters of the universe,' are nothing more than mere humans that have more quirks and qualms then we, the people do. Surely the lifeblood of any democracy is the people, not the supposed elite that thinks that they are better than the masses.
Posted by nrobi at 6:57pm on June 22, 2009
Many of our current problems stem from the deliberate blurring of consumerism with "democracy". Consumerism - in theory - "gives the people what they want" And what could possibly be more democratic than that? Problem is, "what the people want" is, more often than not, what they've been *programmed* to "want" by increasingly skillful and scientific advertising and marketing. It's been interesting to watch the failure of West German advertising in what used to be East Germany. "Buy OUR brand of washing powder, and your husband will be more attentive, your house will be bigger, your kids better behaved, and you'll become magically more sexually attractive..." This "brand image" rubbish just doesn't float in East Germany. They ask "Yes... but how is it at washing clothes?" Sadly, we no longer seem to do the same; we've been successfully snagged by the "Image" thing.
Posted by Ron Walker at 7:51pm on June 22, 2009
PLEASE, do not make our mistake of looking to the "amateurs". That brought us George W. Bush. Look instead for the honest man. We have had a few - found in odd places. Abraham Lincoln, as and example of a man with a tremendous ego, but with the good of the American Union the forefront.
Posted by jlarsen at 5:12am on June 23, 2009
Ron Walker makes an important point. In the UK I often buy goods in "Asian" shops; they offer good value. It seems traditional Asian attitudes rate value ahead of image. But why can so many of us be persuaded by advertising? Is it because so many are dumb or because our lives are so dull we need the instant fixes that advertising promises. It always seems to me that advertisers are mercenary liars, willing to use their trickery to mislead in return for fat salaries. Do they all use the products they advertise? Do they believe their own messages? Probably not. Morally they are liars. Same applies to PR people. It seems likely we shall have one of those as PM in the UK very soon. Oh! what a prospect? You may think this is at odds with my pro-business leaning apparent above. There is no contradiction; business does not need dishonesty. We would not go without the things we want if businesses stopped lying. Good information makes good economics. Deliberate mis-information (most advertising) doesn't. It helps individual businesses but since it consumes resources without generating value, it is harmful overall.
Posted by TomNightingale at 12:10pm on June 23, 2009
Comrades! The People are now, under their cadres, in charge of the Revolution! Under our glorious Leader, we march forward under our red banners.... Sorry, that's the old hymn sheet.... Comrades! The filthy bourgeois Trotsky has been overthrown! Together we march... Erm.... British People! Join the BNP and drive out the foreign scum..... No? Wait a minute. Ah yes, here is the new hymn sheet just come in from Head Office on my government blackberry: "Let's all work much harder. We won't get a pension. We won't get much of our salary once it is taxed. Soon our very money will be worthless. But - hey! - Britons never never shall be slaves! Hooray for Europe and President Tony!!!!"
Posted by prziloczek at 5:24pm on June 24, 2009
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