Reply #20: Exactly So - I think that axiom was lifted from Karl Marx, wasn't it?

[radio4progressives]

the "ignorant masses" must be ruled by the "elite".

fact check me, on that.. but an old marxist friend of mine tried to advance that notion in a different political battle i was involved with.

And Plutocracy runs rampant.

In this case, we removed the board of directors for financial malfeasance and dereliction of duties. But it wasn't easy, it was a real "David and Goliath" battle that was waged in the public arena, in the streets, in town-hall meetings, in the media and in the courts.

while we were fighting them in court, we wrote new bylaws, seeking to democratize it's governance structure, and were calling for membership elections to elect new directors to the boards for representation.

My friend was adamantly opposed to democratization, said he didn't believe members had the level of understanding required to properly govern the organization and he argued that an elections process left open to chance the organization would become vulnerable to tom foolery, sleight of hand machinations and other kinds of corruption, and that the organization could be easily hijacked by corporatist - and said that the organization needed to be governed by a few elite members, and cited Marx with the above quote.

I was deeply offended by this notion, and fought all the harder for democratization and eventually pro-democracy faction succeeded despite the ugly and deplorable tactics that was employed in that five year long battle.

I see the same thing happening in national politics, and i see it happening on the "internets" .

People want it their way for their own personal gains, that's human nature, and the nature of poltics. And in the end, it's who ever has the best access to the media, the hierarchy of the supportive institutions and organizations generally gets to control the message and the campaign.

But once the grassroots gets going and gets behind the fight, goliath can be toppled and david can win, if people are informed of what is at issue.