It’s not about “Democracy” Young people in Hong Kong, like pretty much anywhere these days, are recognizing that their future has been looted and are attempting, through whatever means they have available, to both reach some understanding of how they have come to be in this position and how they might fight back. But despite the fact that the pan-democrats’ terminology is the language of the movement, it’s clear that the movement itself is, for many people, hardly about liberal “democracy.” In fact, most discussions of what protestors actually want quickly jump into entirely different terrain. When asked what their goals are and when pressed about why they want these things, most protestors then immediately jump to economic, rather than purely political, problems. People bemoan skyrocketing rents, the inhuman levels of inequality, inflation in the price of food and public transport, and the governments’ tendency to simply ignore the vast swaths of people sitting at the bottom of society. One speaker at an open mic made the common argument: “Why is Hong Kong just a couple of rich people and so many poor people?! Because we have no democracy!” Many claim that once they are able to “choose” their own leaders these leaders will be able to fix widespread problems of inflation, poverty and financial speculation. Democracy has thereby come to designate less the practical application of a popular voting system and more a sort of elusive panacea, capable of somehow curing all social ills.
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 09:52:46 +0000
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