“If words are symbols or metaphors, then our speaking is never neutral. Whenever we speak, we select linguistic symbols in order to evoke those particular meanings that will communicate our view or sense of reality. This nonneutrality of speech is what is in a broad sense characterizes its rhetorical quality.” Andy Fisher, Ecopsychology: Psychology in the Service of Life

I’m having a tongue in cheek look at democracy and how it works in many (though not all) countries around the world, and take a few terms, new and old, for a rhetorical spin.

This is how it works. The people (democracy) go out to choose who governs them (not how they are governed!). Often this is based on choosing between ideocracies organised around particracies. So democracy is given the choice of being ruled over by partisan ideocracies. There are many ways to find out who to vote for, mainly by an infocratic network. These infocracies (the media) often have certain allegiances to certain ideocracies and/or particracies. So don’t worry about biased propaganda, they know what they’re talking about.

Now since society is so large it has to be organised by bureaucracies where impersonal rules rule (and not personal people, i.e. democracy) .  Not only that but bureaucracy is informed by the “experts” and “professionals”, heretofore called the technocrats (who themselves can end up becoming entrapped by their own  rules if they’re not careful). The technocrats know best, and we should abide by what they say because their advice is objective and impartial (and impersonal, i.e. undemocratic). In fact perhaps we should just give up democracy, since government might be easier in the hands of those who know best.

Now floating around this democratic system are old vestiges of government, like monarchs, and aristocrats. Obviously since they have a long, inherited, line of experience stretching back generations they may have a clue as to what ruling means and how it should be done. And in some cases, according to some theocrats (old proto-types of the technocrats) these monarchs and aristocrats are ordained by God Himself. Surely we cannot argue against the will of God, right?

Behind all of the above lies this, plutocracy and econocracy. Even the dominant ideocracies are driven by ideas like “capitalism” and “economic growth” and “entrepreneurialism” and “consumerism”. The people with the most money rule, especially if they fund certain parties at election time. But what are they ruled by? Probably money and the making of it.

So after that, we may describe modern democracy as… a so-called democratic electorate (i.e. there’s some sort of universal suffrage) that defers government to a partisan ideocracy that is supported and attacked on all sides by an infocratic network, organised by a bureaucracy that is ruled over by a technocratic elite, influenced by a semi-redundant monarchic aristocracy and theocracy, and all of which is driven by greedy and ruthless plutocratic values.

But don’t fret, there are other “ocracies” that predate any of these, “living democracy” and “ecocracy”.

Living democracy– This is something which political constitutions and institutions cannot take into account. It is universal and happens wherever there are people, no matter the political structure that governs them. This is what we do in our everyday life, the choices we make, the activities we take part in. It is the sum total of human activity, from scratching our noses to signing peace treaties, taking the dogs for a walk to having a conference of world leaders. It’s how the mass of people act and interact, how we make decisions that can “ripple out” and influence others, whether those decisions are political or personal. It’s how humanity has been functioning and will always function with or without political structures.

Ecocracy– This one, like living democracy, isn’t easily institutionalised or constitutionalised because it is pre-institutional and pre-constitutional. It’s even pre-human and pre-democratic. It’s the sum total of all ecological and biological activity on the planet, it is what governs our lives. This includes human politics, because politics is a part of the activity of human organisms and human organisms are a part of the activity of the earth’s ecosystems.

Power might be organised in complex ways, with a “government” at its apex, but the source of that power is found in wider life of humanity and Gaia. These are the foundation of politics, that happens outside of ballot boxes – what power we have!