by Keith Hart, the Memory Bank
We are all part of a long struggle between inequality and democracy. They are each other’s opposite. If the democratic goal is for the people most affected by decisions to have the biggest say in their making, this becomes impossible when the resources that they bring to the process are vastly unequal. In the twentieth century, people’s aspirations for democracy in their lives were routinely squashed in the name of great ideas – state socialism and the free market – whose effects were to exaggerate the power and wealth of a few at the expense of everyone else. Let us not dwell either on the wars that led to mass loss of life and destruction on a scale unheard of before. Read More »
