When asylum seeker Edward Snowden gets the US and Obama down on his knees in front of their own allies in Europe, we witness a power demonstration that can have untold, positive consequences.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
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MODERN TIMES LEADER. "Russel Brand may have started a revolution last night."
We were able to read this on the website of True Activists this week, after an exciting interview with actor and comedian Russel Brand on the BBC.
For Brand is an individually good role model for most people, with his support for both the Occupy movement and the whistleblowers – with Edward Snowden at the helm. After the US whistleblower Snowden, from his asylum in Russia, last week has leaked new revelations about US interceptions by both German Chancellor Angela Merkel and most European allies, the world's established centers of power are shaking in the bushes. What will be the next hidden truth revealed?
In the BBC interview, Brand criticizes both the right and the left side of party politics – with good reason. The current democracy is being reprimanded, and Brand claims he has never voted. Brand grew up in a Thatcher-England where the belief in democracy and trade union movements is significantly weakened. Brand's statements are a clear sign of a sense of powerlessness, but where one still sees hope.
Four days after the Brand interview, Wikileaks' support page for Edward Snowden arrives, where everyone can provide financial support to a man who lives with very limited personal freedom while fighting for the personal freedom of others. Snowden can now be said to be the world's most important, if not most powerful man – he is the rebel who suddenly rules over Atlantic cooperation. He makes elected leaders like Barack Obama and Angela Merkel seem almost puzzled.
We are not unaffected at home in Norway either. On Wednesday, Spanish newspapers revealed that the US National Secutriy Agency (NSA), where Snowden worked, ranks Norway in second place, with 22 other countries, over the US's closest eavesdropping allies. Snowden sits in neighboring Russia, with more or less limited freedom to have warned of a surveillance that is far more comprehensive than both Jens Stoltenberg (Ap) and Erna Solberg (H) admit.
Snowden has the people in the back, but he is not a people-elected announcer. There is really no definition of what a whistleblower is or does, but a large majority here on the left supports Snowden in his ethical fight against the secrecy of criticism of the people.
Our respect for Snowden is great. Our respect for the likes of Russel Brand might as well be. For Brand uses its own brand, its "brand", ie its own "I", to reflect influence. Or PR, as we can also call it.
Impact vs. Democracy
Here in Norway, we still have, without a doubt, a well-established democracy, for which the labor movement has fought. Long before the oil revenues came, the workers stood together and fought a battle for all to be heard.
But something happened. In all the wealth of the world, the PR industry also grew. Honor is the one trying to give politicians an image they don't have, or "reinforce the image", as they say themselves. But something went awry along the way in the collaboration between politicians and the PR industry. Some began to undermine democracy and thought they could pay for political influence.
In NRK's "Focal Point", during the election campaign we saw a mayor bringing 590.000 of the municipality's crown to Geelmuyden Kiese, to influence his own party traps. The party's deputy secretary Raymond Johansen replies: "She could only pick up the phone instead".
Then one might wonder if the Labor Party's democracy inside is so heavy-handed that one has to turn up half a million in each and every one to get a break in their own party. But what if the proposal had not gone through? Is it fair then that the mayor has taken 590.000 of the taxpayers' dollars and thrown them not only out of the window, but right into the pocket of Geelmuyden Kiese?
Blackmailing the entire PR industry would be a waste of time, as it has a lot to do with it. One must put politicians to the wall. Politicians who go out and ask us to use our ballot in a democracy where they themselves take the shortcut through a public relations agency. The politicians themselves claim the PR agencies have little effect on political influence, but undermine their own claims by buying themselves into influence and power.
During the election campaign, many on the left side of Norwegian politics talked about the grassroots movement being the most important means of winning the election. Nevertheless, the media, and all the parties, spent an enormous amount of time winning the TV election campaign. In several media you could get the impression that we had a two-party system in Norway, consisting of Ap and Right. Or by Geelmuyden and First House.
After election night, many on the left were disappointed by the election result. We get a minority government that advocates for a reservation right to abortion for doctors, which the majority of doctors are against. Police armament, which the majority of the police oppose. And merging municipalities that the majority of the country's municipalities oppose. Thus, a power that is carried out without a democratic majority.
Important choices
In such a time, it is completely natural to lose faith in the parliamentary system as it is, as well as tempting to think again. But still, looking back on a labor and trade union movement that, through democracy, has fought their struggles for where we are now, we look at South Africa's struggle for democracy and Latin America's struggle, then we also see this: Undermining democracy now , is to show these countries their backs.
Russel Brand has not started a revolution. For revolutions starts with organization. But Brand draws a good picture of the contemporary, also in Norway, where politicians have themselves destroyed the value of their own ballot by unnecessary use of loyalty, public relations money and intense branding rather than grassroots movement.
We may well be with "The New Brand Movement" for something better, as long as it happens with the grassroots and not with a public relations agency. Maybe we are heading for a new democracy, or a modern anarchy. Those within Norway's national borders who, on the other hand, interpret the Brand dithen to throw the ballot, have completely misunderstood.
The electoral ballot is perhaps more important than ever in a democracy where commercial forces are trying to gain power. ■
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 01.11.2013. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)
