Should 16-year-olds have the vote??

Posted on by Opher

My internet mate John Peachey sent me this excellent First Dog cartoon. As always it had a lot of thought-provoking truths.

At sixteen we can make lots of life-changing decisions:

a. We can join the army and go and get ourselves killed.

b. We can get married and have babies (and what can be more important than being responsible for a baby?)

c. You can drop out of education go to work and start following the wrong career that’ll mess up your whole life.

d. You can drive a motorbike and become a menace to yourself and others.

e. You can make legal decisions, open bank accounts and sign contracts that could end up bankrupting you.

Of course, you can’t drive a car, go to a pub or buy cigs – strange anomalies.

As a biologist I am aware of crucial brain development. A human brain does not become fully adult until around the age of twenty-five. Does that mean we should not make any major decisions until then?

I’ve known many twelve and thirteen-year-olds who seemed immensely capable, intelligent, perceptive and compassionate. I’ve known many thirty, forty, fifty and sixty-year-olds who are immensely stupid, uninformed, selfish and inconsiderate who are completely incapable of making an intelligent decision and never will be.

In the course of my teaching career I’ve had reams of fantastic debates with students ranging from twelve to eighteen. We covered a wide range of topics – politics, environment, abortion, sex, contraception and war. I found them well able to argue rationally and usually very well informed, interested and idealistic.

My experiences have made me really think about my commitment to democracy. Do we really want our futures decided by the majority? Half the population have an IQ below 100. Many people are manipulated by conspiracy junk on the internet or propaganda from right-wing media. Most of the population don’t read, think or involve themselves with anything. In my experience we’ve become largely a nation of mindless sheep controlled by multimillionaires through populist nincompoops like Farage, Tice and Trump. Is that democracy? The stupidity of Brexit and hysteria around immigration (exploited by the media and every populist politician) have shaken my faith in democracy.

All told, I’d be happier with a system decided by enthusiastic, idealistic sixteen-year-olds. Mind you, half of them are stupid and most of them get their views from the internet!

Ok yall asked for it. All future MAGAs in one video. #foreducationalpurposeonly – YouTube

Posted on by Opher

(1) Ok yall asked for it. All future MAGAs in one video. #foreducationalpurposeonly – YouTube

Do we really need strong leaders? I don’t think so.

Posted on by Opher

We’ve seen a lot of ‘strong’ leaders’ through the ages. Most of them turn out to be disasters. Hitler, Franco, Pol Pot, Mussolini, Thatcher, Ghenghis Khan, Stalin, Mao, Trump……… We usually end up with war, austerity, tyranny and misery. I do not respect belligerence. I prefer my leaders to be more consensual and less dogmatic and doctrinal. Compromise is often a better way. Imposition is often bad. Teamwork is better than a single head. The charge of the Light Brigade was magnificent folly and a great disaster.

Strong leaders usually get to the top because of personality flaws. They lack empathy to be able to see the effects of their actions on their victims. Many are psychopaths or sociopaths who enjoy wielding power and inflicting pain. They are bullies. They have trampled their way to the top.

Yet people still have that tribal mentality as of we were still living in small groups on the African plains. Then we did need decisive aggression and violence against other competing groups.

Times have changed. We are supposedly civilised now. We don’t want strong leaders. We want teams to work together to solve problems and find better ways forward.

Yet still we give our vote to those leaders who appear strongest instead of looking at the policies they support and where that will lead us.

 

Democracy – The long and often bloody fight for freedom – The Chartists.

Posted on by Opher

Chartists
The Chartist aims were simple; they wanted one man one vote for all men over the age of twenty one who were sane and not criminals and payment for MPs (So that those other than the extremely wealthy could stand).
That sounds very reasonable to me. I mean it wasn’t as if they were asking for votes for women. Heaven help us if anyone thought that women might be intelligent, knowledgeable or able to exercise the right to vote.
But no. Even this step was thought a step too far. The establishment believed that if you allowed the poor to vote they might vote for things that would stop them being poor. The only way they could be richer was by taking money out of the pockets of the wealthy. The idea was preposterous. Equality!! Freedom!!! Once one lot had it the rest would follow!! Before you knew it the eighteen year olds and women would be after the vote!! And then what??? The country would go to the dogs!!
Giving the vote to ordinary people was asking for trouble it threatened the status quo and had to be resisted.
We are only talking about the mid nineteenth century here. It’s not a thousand years ago. This was the time when only the wealthy were allowed to vote. Strangely they always voted to protect their own interests and keep ordinary people down. Inequality was rampant.
The Chartists did not believe in revolution or violence. They wanted to exert their power by sheer force of numbers. Their idea was to hold mass meetings and sign petitions. These petitions were signed by millions or ordinary people.
They demanded justice and empowerment
They wanted the right for all men to have a vote. For that to be made in secret and for the representation through the country to be fair.
It became a mass movement, particularly in the North, Midlands and South Wales.
Rejection of their demands by government led to strikes. There were some outbreaks of violence. The State hit back by imprisoning hundreds.
The Church, to its discredit, stayed out of the argument.
In 1848 the Chartists held a protest rally on Kennington Common attended by upwards of 150,000. A petition of an incredible 6 Million was handed in demanding the right to vote. It was ignored. The government ordered the deployment of troops and was prepared for an uprising. They feared a revolution along the lines of the continental revolutions.
It looked like the Peterloo massacre on a larger scale!
In the event it passed peacefully.
The Chartists did not achieve reform but they set a tone.
It wasn’t until 1867 that urban working men were given the vote and not until 1918 that we achieved one man one vote. We haven’t yet had a hundred years of power!

The rights of women took a lot more struggle and effort.

The rights we have are the result of the efforts of millions!! We should exercise them with great care. They are easily removed.