How Dogma can Kill Democracy

Seven Members of Parliament in the UK have quit the Labour Party this week. (And now three from the Conservative Party). They have not yet said whether they will start a new party, but rather are standing as an independent group.

I applaud them for their bravery, but I wonder where this is going.

For the moment I am going to ignore their specific reasons for quitting that involve accusations of anti-semitism within the current version of the Labour Party, the complaint that the Labour Party has moved position since they joined, and the wish for a new referendum on Brexit; they all supported remain in the campaign.

Instead, I want to look at why any politician might run into problems with his or her party. And more to the point, the problems that are created by the dogma that a party follows.

Dogma is a strange thing and, in my opinion, is ill-suited to the average human being.

There is a little bit of confusion between our tribal past, and indeed present, and the tribalism that is apparently valued within sections of society. Football fans, for instance, or belonging to any kind of club, or, of course, political leanings.

True tribalism isn’t about ideas or grouping people by the same mullet haircut, it is about common survival, plain and simple. A tribe will not have an automatic need for rules and certainly have no need for a common belief system, other than agreeing that something practical might work better if we “all pull together as a team.” But just like a team in Tug of War, what the individual members think about when they are not pulling a rope, hardly matters. It only matters that they all pull the rope together when the rope-pulling moment presents itself. And I am not talking metaphorically or philosophically here, I am literally talking about things like rope-pulling.

Tribalism within modern society, however, has little or nothing to do with common survival or pulling ropes, though it may reflect common need. Rather, it is about a dogma; a set of values, tenets, or other philosophical ideas that will inform any other decision or action that the so-called “Tribe” will make.

This is very attractive to people who, outside of their immediate family, or indeed, their home, have lost their tribes several centuries ago. A dogma can give you a real sense of belonging and commonality with others.

“All animals are created equal.”

It is a lovely thought, and most people who want to get on with the rest of the world will happily subscribe to it, especially if they are a pig looking to the future. But while they are signed up to the philosophy and mixing with others who believe the same, they get that lovely, cuddly, tribal feeling. How sweet. And rather nice.

But there is a problem. A massive one.

Unlike a proper tribe, one that is just trying to survive day to day using whatever tricks it can come up with, this political tribe is not proposing solutions, but proposing philosophical aspirations.

You can list them.

We’ve done the equal animals joke, but how about equal opportunities? How about education, education, education? How about, reclaiming your own sovereignty? How about common ownership? Or everyone can be an entrepreneur? Or countless other things political parties come up with.

As individual policies, you can’t argue with them. But when they become political dogma, then they very quickly sound like a few telling the many how to think.

Because that is what dogma does. Dogma, religious and political, is always top down. It is the people who start the religion or political party, coming up with a set of rules by which all other rules must be created.

So, if you believe in the public ownership of all companies, like the Russian Communists, then you cannot create any policy that contradicts that. You cannot create a rule about shareholding, for instance, because that would imply private ownership. And even if that shareholding will double the profits and salaries of all involved in the company, you cannot do it. It is against the bigger rule.

Because we base our political parties on dogma, we limit our way of solving any problems by insisting it meets the test of the dogma.

For the current Labour Party, which is where we started, they insist that all ideas not only pass through “conference,” but they also pass Jeremy Corbyn’s political bias. Left and left again, in his case. There is no way they will consider any policy that might sound like something Tony Blair would have come up with. Not because they are bad policies, the lad did quite well, but because they are “New Labour,” and the current Labour Party is anything but.

Likewise, across the Commons swamp, Teresa May has to make sure anything she proposes meets the “Tory Brand.” If it doesn’t sound Tory enough, then there are a whole heap of Tory MPs who will rebel.

If you think about this, it is quite ludicrous. Why would you come up with a system where you hogtie and gag yourself before you even start to look for solutions to vast problems?

In the UK Parliament, there is a kind of workaround for those running the dogma-led tribes. It is called the Whip. Basically, a political party will “whip” it’s members to make sure that even if they have lots of different ideas, when it comes to the vote, they all line up outside the correct doorway like a nice happy line of sheep.

Honestly, I wasn’t picturing the party whips like the pigs from Animal Farm. Okay, I was.

But this is hardly ideal. And it creates a big democratic hole.

You see, under our FPTP voting system, First Past The Post, the supporters of such tell us quite happily that, “it is the best system because you are voting for a real person rather than some party list.”

Except, you might not be. You might be just voting for a dogma-led party. Because once in the chamber, the MP you voted for because he/she had nice teeth, now has to vote the way the party says, not necessarily how they themselves think.

Don’t believe me? John Mcdonnell confirmed it today. He said about the seven former Labour MPs that they should stand for re-election because the people voted primarily for the Labour Party. Umm. So they are not real, independent-thinking people after all, they are sheep cowering from the pigs’ whips.

We are meant to be living in a democracy (forget all that oldest democracy or mother’s of parliament rubbish, we used to limit who could vote).

Democracy implies that there will be a freedom of ideas, that the representatives of an area will be free to represent the needs of that specific area, especially when their needs are unique. That probably applies to all areas.

But, if the solution to the needs of their area goes against the philosophy of the dogma police, we have a problem. We have a failure of democracy.

An MP might be desperate to welcome the policy from the opposing ruling party that will do wonders for their electorate, but won't simply because their party says it doesn’t fit their dogma test.

And right at this moment, we are watching dogma desperately trying to rule over everything else. From all parties and within all parties.

And in the middle of it are a lot of MPs who are not happy about the pigs telling them they are sheep.

Seven have resigned because of it. Will others follow? I have no idea. I hope so because I want to see the dogma that rules and hogties all of our political parties given a right royal kicking.

But I suspect it will all end in tears and dogma will rule the day. Even if it is the worst possible outcome for us sheep.