“Unnatural, irrational, sinful, wicked, unjust, devilish and tyrannical it is for any man whatsoever – spiritual or temporal, clergyman or layman – to appropriate and assume unto himself a power, authority and jurisdiction to rule, govern or reign over any sort of men in the world without their free consent.”
The Levellers were a radical political group during the English Civil War (1642-51) – more accurately known as the War of the Three Kingdoms. In a world turned upside down (see here), where the God’s anointed king had been put on trial for treason and executed, the Levellers were just one amongst a number of new political groups. John Lilburne was a Leveller who is credited with originating the idea of “freeborn rights” – that everyone is born with certain rights and these rights are not bestowed by governments or human law.
During the Civil War, the Levellers were demanding that real sovereignty should be transferred to the House of Commons, to the exclusion of the Lords and the monarch. They demanded manhood suffrage, a redistribution of seats in the Commons and more regular meetings of parliament to make the legislature more truly representative. The Levellers also wanted economic reforms to help small property owners, complete equality before the law, drastic legal reform and complete freedom of religious worship and organisation. Some of these demands have yet to be properly met nearly four centuries after they were made.
Throughout history there have been large groups of people excluded from political power. For much of the past, power rested with those who felt that they were best able to exercise such power and they prevented those they considered unworthy or unable to exercise proper restraint in the conduct of public affairs. The excuses for excluding people from political power have varied over the years. In ancient Egypt and modern Iran, a religious elite claimed a special relationship with the god(s) as the justification for their privileges. A military caste ruled in ancient Sparta and thereby justified keeping 90%+ of the population living as slaves. Throughout history, the wealthy have claimed superiority on the grounds of special breeding – the word ‘aristos’ means ‘best’ in Greek, hence ‘aristocracy’ or rule by the ‘best’ people. Readers of this blog do not need to be told again what I think about this.
This snobbish and exclusionary attitude has commonly been associated with the political right. Yet, increasingly, it is people who identify as ‘left’ who dislike ordinary people and wish to exclude them from political power; they are too stupid, too ‘racist,’ too somethingist’ to be allowed a say in how their countries are ruled. Better to allow the managerial elite (pfft) to take all the decisions. The person most responsible for the Trump presidency summed up this sneering attitude best…
“You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They’re racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic – Islamophobic – you name it.”
I wonder how long before the new aristocracy of Woke fascists will move to disenfranchise certain “deplorable” voters and “appropriate and assume” to themselves the authority to “reign over… men without their free consent”?
What we need is more democracy not less. I wrote a piece in October 2017 about the possible reform of the UK constitution – A Proposal for Change – to break the power of the Establishment/ruling class/aristocracy* (*delete to taste) in their latest and most dishonest guise yet.
Here’s the Levellers…
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