On being out of power and getting it right and being in power and getting it wrong

Bevanite Ellie tweets thus of Ed Balls, perhaps the most pugnacious of all the candidates for the Labour leadership:

BevaniteEllie"We need a leader who is willing to get out on the doorstep-that way we won't lose touch,like we did, again"- @edballsmp

The truth however is that in our - sadly - heavily hierarchical conceptualisation of power the vast majority of politicians, whilst out of such power, tend to get these touchy-feely things generally right, and there is very rarely too much cause for concern.  The problems arise when they become important enough to need the cushion of police protection, gated streets and the secret services of this or that country to defend their personal integrity.

What's at fault is not a lack of desire on the part of latterday politicos to get down amongst the grassroots.  What's at fault is that damned restricting idea of the hierarchy of power we have which requires us to create a pyramid of interests that ends up compressing our ability to communicate and interact in an open and positive manner.

The politicos are not to blame.  It is our inability to contemplate any other way of controlling and channelling the flux of economy, social thought and cultural intercourse that is not a top-down imposition.

For that is the most curious thing of all: this imposition, seen by those at the top as virtuous, necessary and something to be seriously coveted, imposes itself just as much on their liberties as those of us who find ourselves at the bottom of the pile.

We have all lost our liberty in this modern state of affairs.

That is why we need to change the system, not the people.

Only then will the people revert to their blessed type.