Democracy In The 21st Century 2: Radical Optimism

The internet has transformed the way we talk, the way we message, the way we learn, the way we shop, and the way we do business, and it will change many more things in our lifetime.

The internet provides an abundance of choice and complete freedom of communication –
the ability to contact anyone in the world at any time at no cost.

Anyone with a computer can talk, buy, sell, and bank online with whomever they please. Everyone has access and instant choice between different vendors and different currencies at the click of a button. Anyone can create an online business and do business with people on the other side of the globe. Anyone can create online friendships and meet like-minded people, formulate groups and networks and consolidate public opinion. Anyone can create a web page and get their message heard; anyone with a camera phone can be a journalist; anyone can create a cause, a forum, a network, a movement, and make real changes. In other words, the internet enables real democracy.

Many say the West is in decline, but be best not to let these people scare you. Our belief in freedom, self determination and capitalism has given us a culture of creativity and innovation. This entrepreneurial nature, combined with the digital technology boom, will ensure that it is the west that pioneers the continued development of the free peoples of this planet; but we must be daring, and we must think positively.

There are ways of achieving more development AND more equality in our society, and they involve democratising certain public institutions in order to give equal rights to all who hold a stake in them. All of the issues that have led to the stagnation of the western economies can be solved with more democracy, and the internet makes this possible.

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The really fundamental changes that the internet revolution will bring about are still yet to come. It will change many more aspects of our lives for the better.

The main change will be the way we use money. On the outset, this prediction may seem radical, but change is already underway. When you really think about our monetary system and how it works, it is amazing that people tacitly accept the current state of affairs. Our system of money is profoundly undemocratic. Our currency, that everyone uses on a daily basis, is controlled by a small group of people, and they make all the important decisions on our behalf. This model is shared by all the western economies around the world, most famously in the form of the Federal Reserve in the USA and the ECB in the EU.

Ron Paul has popularised an anti-
 central bank movement in  the United States

As described in more detail in this previous article, the Bank of England is a group of people in London, who control all the money in circulation. They get to decide how much is printed, who it goes to, and what interest rates are. How is that fair? The amount of money in circulation, i.e. the value of our money, is extremely important to everyone, and so we the people deserve to have either a proper say in how our central bank is run, or a system that gives people the choice to use a different bank.

It is first important to make clear that opposing the central bank does in no way make you unpatriotic, nor does it mean that we should abolish the pound sterling. In fact, it may be the only way to save the pound sterling from the destructive policies that the central bank pursues. The name of our central bank, the Bank of England, makes it out to be a great British institution, and indeed in many ways it is; but that does not make it beyond criticism. Our country was founded on the principles of democracy and equal rights for all, and we have exported these principles around the world. This institution works by means of ensuring ‘price stability,’ and their definition of price stability is permanent inflation. These people are legally allowed to print money. Who gets this new money? Wouldn’t you like to know?

The Bank of England has some very controversial policies

As new money is printed, everyone who does not receive the new money sees the value of their money decrease. Think about what five pounds used to buy, compared to what it buys now... If we were to print new money ourselves, it would be deemed counterfeit, and we would go to jail. To oppose the Bank of England’s practices is to advocate a fair system in which no institution has the power to make other people poorer by devaluing their savings. To support a more democratic system is to uphold the values that our country holds dear. We must force the Bank of England to do the right thing.

The internet gives us unbridled access to markets and currencies. We can buy and sell on eBay and Amazon and almost all ‘high street’ shops now have online stores and delivery services. We can buy from foreign countries with the same ease as buying from our home country and the currency conversion is executed seamlessly. In other words, we are seeing the beginning of a technological revolution of currency competition. Now that goods and services can be bought in any currency, we no longer have to rely totally on the currency issued by the Bank of England, which is deliberately devalued. And why would we want to? Why should we use a bank that devalues our savings? The internet allows us to opt out of using the pound sterling, which eventually will put pressure on the bank to stop devaluing it.

As the internet revolution intensifies, we will even see the emergence of private currencies. This is a strange concept to most traditional thinkers, but as mentioned before, our creativity and openmindedness is what gives us our strength. This is not a totally new concept. In the same way as one might use chips in a casino, or tokens in a theme park, we will see the emergence of online credits on websites. To give an example, imagine if Tesco were to start issuing Tesco credits for their online customers and the credits were valued in food and not in currency. Instead of saving your money in pounds and finding that every year the price of food rises, you could save your money in Tesco credits and they would always be worth the same amount of food in the future. People would then begin to start banking and trading with Tesco credits instead of pounds as they would be worth more to savers as a way of retaining purchasing power.

Private currencies have already begun to take off in some parts of the world where bank transfers via mobile phone are popular. As the mobile payments become more widely recognised and accepted as payment for other goods and services, a new currency will emerge.

As the new generation of internet literate people becomes eager for a more democratic monetary system, pressure will build on those in power to liberate the currency laws so that we can pay our taxes in a basket of different currencies. The digital revolution and the ease of electronic payments means that we will not have to learn to use lots of new foreign coins. The rise of digital transactions and private currencies will happen naturally and with the support of private institutions, but if the government does seek to take control of these inexorable changes, new currency experiments can be trialed in controlled zones before being rolled out to a wider user base.

In the same way that the internet will change the concept of banking, so too will it change politics. Our parents’ generation relied, and many still rely, on contemporary media for their information – newspapers, TV, radio etc. In other words, the majority of their information, news, political and professional opinions originate from small groups of powerful people - Murdoch and the like.

Our generation is the internet generation. All the information we get is obtained from a free open source. We are free to think for ourselves. Whereas the traditional model of government, whereby a group of people sit in a chamber in the capital city and make all the rules for the country, made sense to our parents generation, it is no longer acceptable to the youth of today. We will demand more involvement in the important decisions and the freedom to take decisions ourselves wherever necessary instead of being dictated to by a remote government.

Our generation is immune to the words of politicians and powerful businessmen who are less than truthful. Whereas older generations were frequently won over with spin and stories, and influenced by propaganda about what is right and what is wrong, and made to believe that their money went to good use when it didn't, our generation cannot be fooled.

The internet has opened up all knowledge and opinion to the world. We know full well when our views are not being heard; we know when our representatives do not truly represent us; and we know that on many occasions our representatives do not even have the power to enact change in the way that their people wish. We will continue to demand more choice and more accountability from those that make decisions on our behalf.

The House of Commons

This doesn’t mean to say that our system of parliamentary representation needs to go. People generally accept that not everyone has an interest in politics and not everyone wants to vote, but we must use the internet to revitalise our democracy as soon as possible, so that voting actually matters. The means are there, but we must embrace them.

- Firstly, as touched upon in the last post, we want to know that our representatives truly represent us. All MPs, and candidates to become MPs, will need to have their views clearly set out online for their constituents to see. Most MPs have already entered this arena through the blogoshpere. The internet facilitates a more efficient debate and allows constituents to discuss the important issues for their community and in the end make sure that their MP effectively represents the popular view of the people of that constituency.

- Secondly, people want a say on the big issues that affect them. Some issues are bigger than the politicians in Westminster and are topics that people should be able to decide for themselves. Again the internet could facilitate a direct democracy model through opinion polling and referendums with a controlled online voting system. The shift towards more direct democracy will be gradual, but as the internet generation comes into power, the current model whereby the big decisions about our country are taken by a small group of people, will become increasingly untenable.

If we embrace the power of the internet and facilitate a real model of direct democracy, then no longer will the politicians be able to contradict public opinion; elections will regain their meaning.

If we embrace the power of the internet and demand an alternative to the current monoplolistic monetary system then we will introduce more fairness and equality in society.

We must think about the future with optimism and with an open mind.

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Douglas Carswell talks about the future of our monetary system, following a bill he introduced into parliament to amend the Currency and Bank Notes Act.