No-one else had done more harm to the development of political leadership than Churchill. When he declared that democracy was crude and messy, but that it was the best we had, he inadventently created a license not to look further, not to look beyond. The evolutionary development of democracy to better ways of ruling came to an end with that utterance.
For more the 50 years British, European, indeed world concepts of democracy have stagnated, in the hybris that it is the "best we have", not requiring us to look further and beyond. And yet there are so many better ways which have evolved. But for now they remain obscure, having been swept under the carpet by Winston's remark. His license not to think further has blinded us from better forms of governance.
For example, most Brits are blissfully unaware that just 500 miles away direct democracy is practiced, where the people vote on each issue, issue by issue. Most Brits do not realise how resctrictive their representative democracy is. Yet there are many better systems around. Apart from direct democracy there is: consensus building, wisdom councils, facilitative governance, the Japanese catchball deployment and the greatest jewell: sociocracy. My future blogs will be exploring these approaches, beyond Churchill, beyond democracy.
