Citizen

There are no special qualifications to becoming a member of parliament, an MP or councilor. Anybody can do it, if they have a few ideas and enough folk to believe in them. You will often hear about political experts, but it doesn’t mean much as a term, because there is no particular definition of what politics means.

You will often hear people decrying things as being “political” or “to political”. Again what does it mean? Sometimes folk confuse “party politics” with “politics” which is part of the problem.

Politics just means how groups of folk organise themselves to get things done – using democratic means. Democracy also gets forced into the idea it is all about majority rule. If 49 are for and 51 against it is democratic to say 51 are the winners? How can it be a democratic decision with half of the people losing? Shouldn’t democracy be about consensus and keeping as many people happy as possible?

We can only engage in what we think, by being active citizens and being part of the process, rather than just being part of the pack that wins or loses. The principals of Common Good are a much more representative form of finding consensus than winner takes all?

Q. Do you agree? What does citizenship mean to you