So now Sweden’s accession to NATO seems to be locked in, since Erdogan has relented, and Hungary probably won’t put up too much resistance.
Imbecilic pundits rejoice over the United States having “twisted Turkey’s arm” over the issue, as if that sort of Machiavellian bullshit is commendable. There’s a submissive eroticism all over this. We do really need Freud and the Frankfurt School to make full sense of the situation, in spite of what all those dainty young Nazis happen to think.
But what’s astonishing here is how every drooling hack journalist celebrating this collapse of sane European foreign policy seems perfectly happy to throw any semblance of democracy out the window in the process. You see, it’s not only that they still, after almost two years, repeat the narrative that there’s too little time to organize a referendum on the NATO accession.
Over and over again, they also declare that common people are too stupid to be given a vote on the issue.
This article from almost two years ago emphasizes how the issue is “way too complex” for the common riff-raff to have a say on. The author contrasts this with other situations where “people had the time to study and learn”, i.e. to be prepped with the appropriate narratives, rhetoric and arguments, to be able to make an “informed choice” on the issue.
But the point of referenda, the very idea with democracy as such, is not that only the properly vetted and prepared are to get a vote on the important issues. The point is that every asshole gets a vote. That each and every cunning street-smart homeless vagrant and every idiot overeducated professor equally get to have a say, on the assumption that SOMETHING VALUABLE might be found in every perspective and every point of view, no matter how fringe, mainstream, brilliant or outlandish it may happen to seem at the outset.
Another purely fucking golden argument they give in the Swedish article above is that “important NATO documents and protocols regarding security issues aren’t public”, so therefore we can’t let the citizens have a say on whether Sweden should join.
I mean, read that again. BECAUSE the alliance is in some sense a black box, and full information on the consequences of joining is not available, it follows that we can’t have a vote.
What?
Because people are intentionally kept in the dark on the issue, they can’t be allowed to have a say. I mean, what the fuck do they think they’re stating here?
How does this typ of nonsensical authoritiarian bullshit by public journalists in what’s supposed to be a representative democracy go unchallenged?
It’s literally like saying women can’t be allowed to vote because we’ve been keeping them out of higher education, or that the proper response to political disenfranchisement is to abolish freedom of assembly.
But what’s more, there has recently been a debate on whether NATO accession actually entails a form of authority transfer that would necessitate an amendment of the Swedish constitution. It’s convincingly argued that accession does not NECESSARILY entail such a transfer of authority, but generally condeded that it might, and that accession nonetheless involves a significant situational transfer of power from the people of Sweden to NATO command.
It stands to reason that the public ought to have a say when its actual self-determination is challenged. According to any basic understanding of democracy, this should be a no-brainer. Nor is this issue rocket science - you don’t need an expert understanding of every bit of minutiae to have an opinion on whether you think this transfer of power is worth the tradeoff or not.
But we’re not living in actual democracies, of course. The only thing is that it’s more naked these days. There’s now less hypocrisy about the whole thing, less pretense to keeping up the charade.
On that note, the prize-winning, cake-grabbing, totally final argument for keeping the NATO issue far away from any referendum found in the article, is that RUSSIA, THE EVIL EMPIRE, might influence the outcome of any such expressions of the popular will. So since a foreign power MIGHT intend to influence polls or referenda, we should simply not hold any such thing.
Imagine pulling out that argument during the struggle for universal suffrage:
“Nah, the ruling class MIGHT influence the outcome of any popular vote, so let’s just can the whole idea.”
“You’re an idiot.”
If we don’t rapidly organize in the face of this global transition towards authoritarianism that’s taking place on almost every front, we’re going to be out of options in a few short years.
As the affluence of society depends increasingly on the uninterrupted production and consumption of waste, gadgets, planned obsolescence, and means of destruction, the individuals have to be adapted to these requirements in more than the traditional ways. The “economic whip,” even in its most refined forms, seems no longer adequate to ensure the continuation of the struggle for existence in today’s outdated organization, nor do the laws and patriotism seem adequate to ensure active popular support for the ever more dangerous expansion of the system.
Scientific management of instinctual needs has long since become a vital factor in the reproduction of the system: merchandise which has to be bought and used is made into objects of the libido; and the national Enemy who has to be fought and hated is distorted and inflated to such an extent that he can activate and satisfy aggressiveness in the depth dimension of the unconscious.
Mass democracy provides the political paraphernalia for effectuating this introjection of the Reality Principle; it not only permits the people (up to a point) to choose their own masters and to participate (up to a point) in the government which governs them — it also allows the masters to disappear behind the technological veil of the productive and destructive apparatus which they control, and it conceals the human (and material) costs of the benefits and comforts which it bestows upon those who collaborate.
The people, efficiently manipulated and organized, are free; ignorance and impotence, introjected heteronomy is the price of their freedom.
Marcuse, H. Eros & Civilization.
The non voting issue reminds me of the stupidity of taking Trump off the ballot in some states.
The amendment they claim is one that states an insurrectionist cannot run for office.
Ok, let's say he was charged with insurrection, not the half assed assumption they're going on.
Why should there be a power that says you cannot vote for this so called insurrectionist?
If the person is a bad guy, people won't vote for him or her.
No need to block a choice, especially if the insurrection has public support.
Oh the irony! Going by that crap, George Washington and other presidents wouldn't have been able to hold office.
Things like this remind me of how big of a fraud constitutions are.
https://www.michaeltsarion.com/constitution-con.html
"We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is." - Judge Charles Evans Hughes
“Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.” ― Benjamin Franklin
Were I from Sweden, I'd feel betrayed by this development.
A massive change in their Defense policy. Driven by confected BS.
With no voice. Not even the appearance of it.
As their men, their fathers, their sons, may be called up to a collective defense requirement that is NOT defensive, NATO having lived on far longer than it should have. And long been a tool of empire not a defensive shield against some immense potential enemy.
Having NATO to hide behind emboldens the worst tendencies of modern politicians in the subject nations.
Re: The lack of voice by citizens. This trend is accelerating. If it is truly important, we never get a say.
Government, fundamentally, is evil. That goes for any government-like structures. Whatever good they are built for is far outweighed by the bad that they do.
NATO, with its Article 5, is an anachronistic Sword of Damocles threatening the member states and neighbors with destruction. The US Gov lure of adding Ukraine to NATO was part of the US provocation of Russia to launch its SMO. Putin wouldn't have crossed that line if Biden hadn't done so first. And how many thousands are now dead or maimed as a result?
Peace.