The Many and the Few

Originally this phrase, “The Many and the Few” exemplified the struggles of Paul and Peter in the Acts of the Apostles. Hence my blog. And then there are times when inspiration, indeed wisdom, comes from most unexpected quarters. During lunch I clicked on TV to find Charlie Rose hosting Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Yes, the Russian ex-oligarch is my surprising source.

Perhaps Mikhail’s stint in jail, for whatever reason, has cleansed him from the dangers inherent in ever-corrupting vicissitudes of power. Surely, the man, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, formally Russia’s richest man, must have been exposed to its wiles. Although according to Wikipedia, Russia sports a mere 111 billionaires to the USA’s 492, (after all USA is a democracy where more people are equal), Mikhail’s wealth must have placed him under considerable temptation.

What caught my attention, however, was not Khodorkovsky’s unexpected release from jail, but a statement he made about his political views. My own views are tempered by the conviction that, while no two people are equal, we are all endowed with inherent, if deeply hidden, near-infinite creative power. As long as we do not externalize this power, assigning it to some distant divinity hovering on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, we can, in time, discover it within ourselves. Within our consciousness.

Hence Mikhail’s statement was so vital to me.

He stated, roughly, that since the “authorities” have, and continue to make, such grossly evident mess of things, surely “people” simply couldn’t do any worse.

I was stunned. Surely, he was right. The “authorities” are making an absolute mess of political, social, military, and every other governance. They even manage to fail in the field of education. Could any bunch of “ordinary” people do worse?

Any bunch?

There are wonderful both a priori and consequences (a posteriori) of this view. Since we, individually, are equipped with inherent infinite potential, and NO organization is, hence we must make decisions, and not those few who have proven, time and again, their complete and utter inability to do so. At least if we messed things up we would pay the piper, while the “authorities” would no longer retire at somewhere between $170,000 and $400,000 (£400,000 in the UK) per year on life-long pensions.

You and I must make the decisions—they, the bumbling authorities, must carry out our orders. In this electronic age this should be amply possible with the use of referenda published on the Internet.

At long last real Democracy?

We are, according to some, created unto the image and likeness of God. To my knowledge, not a single government was. Nor any organization. Nor even the Pentagon. Neither were the oil Sheiks of Saudi Arabia. Mikhail Khodorkovsky seems to have realized that. Why can’t we?

So now we’ve come a full circle. The Many would decide what the Few must do. E pluribus Unum at last. Of course, this applies only to material existence. Perhaps Paul was right, “down here”. Peter’s interests lay elsewhere. 

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