I don’t want to be told that we ‘live in a democracy’ any longer; the phrase now irritates me beyond belief.

Everywhere I look I see evidence that the feudal system of kings and serfs is alive and well – supported and voted into place by this obscenity we call democracy.

These ‘Kings’ don’t wear crowns and carry sceptres, any more than burglars wear striped jerseys and carry swag bags, but they collect tithes from us and rule our lives as effectively as any medieval monarch.

Sepp Blatter is the latest incarnation to surface blinking into the public eye. Blinking and horrified – to find himself in an environment where the assembled serfs did not back respectfully into a corner when his gaze fell upon them, were not stunned into silence by his presence, failed to offer up the expected gifts of gold and myrrh.

As he Blattered (Blatter, v. to prate; to babble; to rail; to make a senseless noise; to patter…) his way through that press conference, I was struck by the well worn script.

The denials – ‘everything I did was within the rules’; the obfuscation – ‘I deny absolutely all manner of things you haven’t accused me of and I’m not prepared to discuss the things you have accused me of’; the whitewash reports – written by courtiers of the ‘King’; the threats, the bullying, the demands for respect – ‘I am the head of this organisation, I deserve your respect. Damage me and you damage the organisation’; and finally the behind the scenes chicanery, the lobbying for support from the weak links in the pyramid, those who would lose their tentative hold on power and glory if their king was disposed.

We have heard it so many times in recent times, from Michael Meacher’s plaintive wailing as the MPS expenses were exposed; the hierarchy of the BBC as their use of public licence fee money was questioned, the obese European Commission when required to balance their books, the International Olympics Committee – and indeed the 2012 Olympics committee…we will take your money today, we’ll tell you next month or maybe even later what you are getting in return; right down to the recent events in our own humble Libertarian party.

Those at the top of the pyramid simply don’t believe that we humble serfs who pay our money at the turnstile, turnpike, or tithe barn, have any right whatsoever beyond the right to pledge our allegiance to them and their grandiose lifestyles. ‘They’ live by different rules to the rest of us, they refuse to submit themselves to the same code of behaviour, and they blame any apparent dissent in the ranks on the presence of a ‘Foe’, the renegade insider who must be turned out for the good of the organisation.

With Sepp Blatter, it has been Jack Warner, and Jerome Valcke; for Michael Meacher it was Guido and the renegade expenses office insider who sold the DVD of un-redacted expenses to the Telegraph; the problem is never with the head of the organisation, it lies with the whistle blower – they are the bad apple who must be cast out of the community. Then everything can return to normal, the serfs can pay their tithes once more and order is restored.

It is the same script from which Gadaffi reads, and Basher al-Assad, Robert Mugabe and a host of others.

At the root of it all is money. The control of money. Our kings are no longer anointed by heredity principles, but by the control of money. It came as no surprise that the recent G-8 conference in Paris was preceded by the ‘e-G-8’ conference. This was the new money kings, Facebook, Google, Paypal, Microsoft, challenging the ‘democratic’ process. Saying out loud what many of us had long suspected; that is was not just the bankers who controlled our lives, it was the huge corporations that could make or break governments. It is supposed to be ‘us’ who can make or break governments.

The ballot paper is meaningless now. We hand the real control to whoever we vote for with out wallet. When we decide that we cannot live our life without Sky TV blattering away in our living room, we voluntarily anoint Murdoch as a King. Millions of us. When we decide that we are not content with watching a young man run across our local park, but must see the most famous, most celebrated, pair of feet in history, maybe, perhaps, emerge from the subs bench to risk his precious ankle by running across a foreign field for a few minutes – then unwittingly we subscribe to the tithes that anoint Sepp Blatter as King.

The only cure for our ills is contentment and personal responsibility. If we contented ourselves with the world that is around us, with what is freely available; if we stopped the endless drive for ‘more’, ‘better’, ‘bigger’, ‘brighter’ we would starve these demi-Gods out of existence.

‘Easier said than done’ you say – ‘I live in a tower block, nowhere to grow vegetables’…but why do you live in a tower block? Why do you live in a city? In order to earn money? It is the capitalist system that has led us down this road, convinced us that the chance to watch the fastest legs in history run in circles is worth giving access to our credit cards to the Olympics committee.

We could damage all of them irrevocably by returning to the barter system, by using our intelligence to work out ways of living that didn’t involve money.

If 60 million people in the UK all built themselves a house like Simon Dale’s effort the planning department would go ballistic – but would it? Would the planning department even exist if we were all out gathering suitable logs? No one paying taxes or rents to the council?

I’m not seriously suggesting that we all make ourselves sandals out of old tyres, just pointing out that we are, each one of us, an essential ingredient in the process that allows the Sepp Blatters to exist, with our acquisitive nature, our desire for something more – and if we all opted out of the system – they would not, could not, exist.

Every penny you don’t spend, is not just a penny you don’t need to earn, it’s a nail in the coffin of the Blatterers.

PT June 2, 2011 at 10:11

“These ‘Kings’ don’t wear crowns and carry sceptres, any more than burglars
wear striped jerseys and carry swag bags, but they collect tithes from us and
rule our lives as effectively as any medieval monarch.”
At least burglars
are relatively honest about their activities.

In the old feudal days, you’d pay tithes to the church, and taxes to your
local squire and the Monarch. These days, there’s thousands of the bastards
leeching off us.

john malpas June 2, 2011 at 00:15

bring back boiled cabbage – that should settle you all down.

Gordo June 1, 2011 at 19:48

Excellent post. I can say no more.

Dave H June 1, 2011 at 18:42

Ah well, at least my conscience is clear on one thing: Murdoch is
definitely not a king in this house and will not be while I live here. I’ve
lived entirely without TV before, and if Sky was the only choice, I’d re-use
the TV as a large computer monitor.

Unfortunately, the corporate state is pretty much here. They’re not
completely in charge yet, but it probably won’t be much longer – just look at
the US and read the terms and conditions of service of large organisations to
which you have to agree in order to get their product. We’re not quite that
far down the road yet, but the destination is starting to appear on the road
signs.

2Mac June 1, 2011 at 18:18

I trust Blatter as much as I trust Mandelson and Blair but then I also do
not trust any of the Football Associations. The game is run by idiots at the
expense of morons.

With regard to the council and its Council Tax increases. It is non jobs
for jumped up little knobs that do not and never have required to be done in
the past.

I carried out major structural work to my house, knocked down load bearing
walls, rewired the whole place and stripped the building back to the
shell.

I decided the delay dealing with the council and planning department plus
tradesmen coming and going, starting and stopping work. Would provide undue
delay in my housing needs and increase my costs excessively.

I just told my tradesmen to get on with it, it will be cheaper to argue
with the council later or just not sell the house for years by which time the
council will surely have lost all data on a memory stick left on a train.

Disenfranchised of Buckingham June 1, 2011 at 17:28

I’m not sure what FIFA has to do with corporations.

Snowolf June 1,
2011 at 16:55

Well, as far as FIFA are concerned, I’m going for the sponsors.

http://uksnowolf.blogspot.com/2011/06/hitting-them-where-it-hurts.html

Andrew Duffin
June 1, 2011 at 16:53

Simon Dale’s house looks nice but he doesn’t tell us how he got Planning
Permission for it or what he did about Building Control.

Without those it’s not really an option, is it? He might get to keep it, or
the Local Authority bulldozers might turn up in the end; depends on who he has
upset, if anybody.

And once he starts wittering on about climate change and peak oil, well,
time to stop reading imho.

Katabasis June 1,
2011 at 16:44

I like the overall argument in the piece, but this is just lazy: “It is the
capitalist system that has led us down this road,” – which capitalist system,
what do you mean by ‘capitalist’? The economy where 53%+ GDP is public
sector?

Michael
Fowke June 1, 2011 at 16:14

The whole world is corrupt. Even the average joe in the street. It’s human
nature.

They’re all at
it June 1, 2011 at 18:34

Good point, unfortunately.

Mark June 1, 2011 at 16:05

Democracy – biggest con trick around.
Give the idiots some nice bits of
paper to put their crosses on, that will keep them happy. If they complain
then suggest that they can put numbers on them instead.
If you didn’t laugh
you would have to cry.

backwoodsman
June 1, 2011 at 15:08

Small point of order ! its the 60 million people where there should only be
20 Million people, which has largely led us down this road ! Hence 10 grand
worth of breeze blocks costing a minimum of 150 grand and we’re all doomed,
doomed I say.

gladiolys June 1, 2011 at 15:03

Anna, I concur.

“It is the capitalist system that has led us down this road”… So why is it
that Libertarians are often the most vehement defenders of the free market and
capitalism?

And yes, I struggle to come up with a better system.

Matt
Wardman June 1, 2011 at 14:55

We live in a democracy.

And how are you?