Holding power to account

One of the biggest problems facing the world in 2022 is the collapse of democracy leading to an abuse of power by elites who govern us. Survey the modern landscape and what you see, in many different arenas, is a growing divide between haves and have nots; the powerful drunk on power as they hubristically reap misery on the rest of us. The burning question becomes how do we hold them to account if democracy is failing? Finding an answer is essential if we are not to return to a new era of robber barons and miserable serfs.

Let us consider three examples. One global, one national and one institutional.

On the international level democracy is in obvious crisis because governments are becoming mere fronts and puppets for globalist elites, giant corporations and multinational companies. In recent years countries seem oddly in lockstep, from launching gay marriage to lockdown protocols, all of which hint at decisions made on a global basis by forces far beyond the control of the electorate. And it is no secret that these same powers control and own the mainstream media. Witness the lack of reasoned debate during lockdowns replaced by a single controlled narrative forced on us.

This week an unelected body, the World Economic Forum, is meeting in Davos. It comprises many of the richest people on earth who now wield extraordinary influence over us. If you doubt this consider just one member of this powerful lobby, Bill Gates. A man whose wealth stems from selling computers but who today has made it his job to get heavily involved in global pandemic response. Why? The man has no medical qualification nor is he an epidemiologist or virologist, yet he meddles with issues pertaining to public health and has huge power in this regard because he funds pharma. I cannot be alone in considering this not only questionable but rather dangerous.

Or consider how in recent weeks nations have been quietly signed up to an unelected WHO treaty. This means that when the next pandemic strikes an unelected global body, funded mainly by China and our old friend Bill Gates, can lock us down at their whim. Do we really want this much power put in the hands of medics funded by the very elites who made billions in profits from the last lockdown? There will be little point complaining to your MP because Westminster will have ceded power to this body. I urge you to sign this petition asking that a more democratic process is applied.

Let us move to National level where the picture is equally depressing. In the Uk, as in many other nations today, there is simply (deliberately?) no credible opposition to hold the ruling party to account. Therefore the ruling party grows ever more dismissive of the electorate. Party-gate is the perfect example; what unites the latest revelation in the Gray report (that boorish civil servants were insulting to domestic staff) with what we already knew (MP’s who imposed cruel lockdown rules did not bother to keep them themselves) is this; both speak of sneering and detached hubris.

It becomes clear that those in authority do not care for us much at all. The rules need not apply to them. Animal Farm is becoming true before our eyes. They are better and more important than us in their minds. And given that these law breakers remain in office despite having been caught with their pants down who can deny it? It turns out, in the eyes of those who govern us, the right for an office leaving do in 10 Downing Street is more important than the right of ordinary people to attend funerals of loved ones. I might suggest replacing them in the next election. But given the opposition leader was also photographed quaffing ale and breaking rules- what meaningful choice do we have? All that is on offer is a cosmetic switching of individuals- one corrupt elite for another.

Finally let us see how this thorny issue of power out of control and no longer in service of the lowly is now damaging institutions. For this we really are spoilt for choice. We could talk about a police force that paints rainbow cars and bends the knee for globalist causes but doesn’t actually bother much with crime, last year 5% of burglaries were investigated. Or of a health service with a larger annual budget than the entire GDP of Greece but which still cannot actually provide the medical staff to care for us; more important to pay for the red tape, inflated salaries and pensions for invented jobs and the running of numerous quangos. Education is sliding into this realm too as schools are stripped of old fashioned head and deputy in favour of bureaucratic “superheads” on highly inflated salaries managing clusters of schools whose budget must be stretched to afford them.

And what of the Church? In both Catholic and Anglican circles we see the disconnect at play. In the Church of England, and increasingly in Catholicism too, the pews seem ever more detached from the modern faceless and cash hungry dioceses. There has been a trend to divest power, influence and resources away from grassroots parishes and into these bloated bureaucracies. Parish experts get paid many times what is offered to clergy and, because the diocese machine tends to take on a corporate life they become inured to globalist voices not the Gospel of Christ. We rarely find the modern prelate preaching about Jesus, instead they lecture us all on the evils of plastic or on political issues like immigration which is arguably the work of government not religion. The temptation to become another NGO is overwhelming now matter how well intentioned many involved might be.

In the Catholic church we have seen something more sinister; a Vatican awash with scandals sexual and financial leading to disgraced Cardinals and bishops who the faithful can’t get rid of. Accountability is for the riff raff not the elite.

In all these things the needs of those at the bottom is lost to indulge the desires of those at the top. In other words the balance of power in modern society has shifted too far in only one direction and it is causing a crisis of integrity and trust within the wider culture. If we are to avoid the death of 20th Century democracy and freedom leading to a new era of totalitarian serfdom then we must begin to collectively tackle this problem. How do we hold power to account? How do we ensure a greater integrity and moral decency in those who wield power over us?

In my next post I will argue that this moral and spiritual slide in recent years is directly linked to the abandonment of faith and the walking away from Christian faith.