Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps the most famous words he said in his life came at the end of his Gettysburg Address, regarding ‘government: of the people, by the people, for the people’. They’re obviously true. Or are they?
Of the people – suggests those elected are representative of the public-at-large. They aren’t. They’re people with a propensity to exercise power, to be in the public eye, to give expression to some perceived ideology or ideal. Or whatever. But they’re self-selected – not selected by a table of random numbers.
By the people – suggests voters know what they’re doing, who they vote for, why they vote the way they do. Seemingly self-evident. But wrong. Nowadays election campaigns are slick and targeted, run according to the numbers, peppered with half-truths, or even quarter-truths. And election winners are often those with the biggest budgets and cleverest spin doctors.
For the people – suggests governments serve the people’s interest. They don’t. To think they do is a joke, a furphy, patent nonsense. They serve various interests: campaign donors, big business, those who ensure future re-election, others. If governments governed for the people, there’d be no need for the Grands Prix Act, the Pulp Mill Assessment Act [1] and other laws that purposely curtail citizens’ rights and freedoms. And Hepburn Shire wouldn’t block local farmers obtaining permits to build shops for farmgate sales – which is a problem facing Daylesford Organics. The Shire’s policy’s myopic and stupid. Its rationale’s obscure. It serves someone’s interests. But not the people’s. That’s for sure.
