Down with Democracy

A speech for the defense for all cases

by

Edmund Schoenenberger

For Natascha, Dana, Nana, Kaja Wissiflue 1986

Translated from German into English by Inez Kochius

Preface

I deal daily with the courts where ever the wind of freedom, of democracy, and of justice blows. But I do not see democracy nor do I hear freedom, yet I am a lawyer and do not believe in justice.

How does one stand it?

With a speech for the defense for all cases! It saves me having to be at loggerheads with the judges, whether the usual criticism in my plea has anything to do with the case or not. I simply hand in this speech and in the aftermath of its crushing impact I gently undo my clients out of the oppressive entanglement.

If the justice system wants to get after me, well, here it is: my speech for the defense for all cases.

Do the people rule?

The most successful imposture in the history of mankind is the marketing of the western countries as countries run by the people. In the fashion of Coca-Cola advertising, the media blares day in and day out, “Freedom, Democracy and Constitutional State”. It is high time to put an end to this nonsense.

Let's look at the country, which apparently is the oldest democracy around, Switzerland. We see shrinking land and we see settlements bursting at their seams. Five out of a hundred people still work on farms. The other people either live out their lives in cities or in some other congested areas.

Were the people masters of this development?

No, they were not!

In the heart of Switzerland is Zurich. Let's stroll through this cosmopolitan city. What do we observe?

One factory after the next, shop after shop, office tower after office tower, store after store, one place to spend one’s money after the next, streets after streets, apartment buildings after apartment buildings. People seem to be buzzing around the clock. At rush hour the masses spill into the streets like avalanches. From the apartment silo to the place of work, from the place of work to the recreation industry and back to the apartment. Once in a while one buys a trip to invade Europe’s beaches and similar destinations.

Do people rule over their every day life?

No, they do not!

I am imagining Zurich a century ago: there, where the Limmat leaves the lake on either side of the river a few houses are lined up, some of them unobtrusive, others elegant and high class even in those days already. High from the steeples of a few churches rings the sound of church bells. Their sound spreads over the surrounding fields and meadows. To the south is Wollishofen and to the north, situated in the Glattal, is Seebach. These used to be two sleepy little hamlets whose farmers walked the ten kilometers back and forth only on market days in order to sell their fruits of labor to the city dwellers.

Halfway to Seebach is Oerlikon, in those days not any less of a sleepy hamlet. Today it is world-renowned. Its name stands for canons. There are no farmers any longer. What happened?

One day a gentleman walked across Oerlikon’s fields. In his head he had a plan. A plan he alone had hatched. In any case, there was no referendum. Quickly, he and the farmers came to terms. The fields changed owners. The man hired workers who at first built barracks to immediately tackle a larger project according to his instructions: a factory. Neither the people voted on it nor did they vote on what and how much this factory would produce.

One factory was not enough. Somewhere the raw material had to be dug out of the ground and transported there, so the end product could be made to the rhythm of the machines. This final product, on the other hand, got by way of many more transports to the retail sales channels and from there to the consumer.

The man had stamped out of Oerlikon’s ground and fields: a mine, as well as all kinds of transport businesses, a factory, stores and of course the whole management apparatus needed to coordinate production and retail. For the workers, he had apartment silos built in the surrounding area. Schwamendingen and Affoltern suddenly awoke from their Sleeping Beauty slumber. And before they even knew it, Wollishofen and Seebach were rather suddenly eaten up by the city.

The man and like-minded others didn’t give up. Again without a referendum, all of Switzerland got turned into Oerlikons and Schwamendingens.

The wastewaters of the factories poison the rivers, the sewage from the workers’ living quarters flows over, and the vehicles produced by the factory owner plug the roads. Stench and noise poison the environment.

All of the sudden referenda start pouring in. “Do you approve a credit for an extension of the road connecting Schwamendingen and Oerlikon?” “Do you agree to build a sewage plant in Glattal?” “Do you want the garbage incinerator at the Aubruecke close to Schwamendingen?” “Are you in favor of having a highway system in Switzerland?”

“Do you agree to build a nuclear power plant to ensure the energy supply?” “Do you agree to take measures to control the damage to the environment?”

The government of the people commences.

It governs over shit!

After the master and his equals single handedly created this monster called Switzerland, a highly technological and industrialized creation, now all of the sudden the people are good enough to deal with the consequences.

The people continuously have to rip open the ground for the “infrastructure”, the euphemism used for the water supply, the energy supply, the communication wires and the sewage. They have to build roads and a train system, so that it is possible for the punctual presence of the laborers at their place of work and to ship the goods back and forth to eventually get to the consumer. Let us not forget the trash they have to cart to the toxic dumps.

It is the responsibility of the people to look after education. At their own expense, they educate masses of workers, all the thousands of charges the master needs for his business. The people transport his correspondence and deliver their own bills, reminders to pay and advertisement flyers that the master himself sends out. If somebody does not want to pay, the people will sick the repossession man onto the late payer.

The people watch over the possessions of the master and ruthlessly persecute those who attempt to enter the master’s villas and palaces in order to share in his wealth. The people operate the huge number of institutions in which those, who disturb things and do not have the ability to firmly and resolutely challenge the ruler, are put away and tortured.

The people provide the taxman who collects the interest and taxes for the maintenance of the “infrastructure”. The ruler himself has long ago gone to foreign tax havens to avoid paying taxes himself.

The people pay the pensions for the surviving dependants of the ones killed at work or on the roads. They also look after those who merely got beaten until crippled.

The undertakings of the master managed to rip families apart. The old folks are disowned. It’s the people who have to pay for their care. Who carries the burden of public health? The people do! They are responsible for that and all the other social services.

The main thing is, the entrepreneurship that necessitates today’s kind of life, is discreetly decided behind closed doors by the master only. He dislikes being stared at. The people’s competencies are limited to wait patiently on the other side of the door for the decisions and to then materialize them precisely.

The master eagerly rakes in the resource of his power: money. Millions after millions, he’s about the break the billions. Soon it will be trillions. Not only does he hoard the gold of the past, no, he also has every bit of land, all the mineral resources, all the movable and immovable things and all services turned into a fortune. Even the water has its price. The air tax is in the air. His power is incredible.

The strategy is always the same: a new product or a new service will be thrown on the market. Advertisement pushes its advantages. It goes without saying that the disadvantages are not mentioned. The masses cannot resist the temptation. Like ants, they crawl around in the shopping malls. Only half a century ago there were a few dozen articles on the shelf that were more than ample to live on. Now it has to be millions of profitable price leaders, well packaged and flashy, that the public gets sucked into. These things get bought, consumed and thrown out again as trash. This is the meaning of today’s time dictated by the ruler.

The method to get people to work is very simple. The people are lied to about wealth and a comfortable life and once a month they are handed a pittance. The following month it is wangled out of them again. This game is repeated month after month, year after year, the whole life long. Nothing documents the degree of “sovereignty” more than the way in which this “sovereign” is lead up the garden path.

Do the people govern?

Absolutely not!

It is not a democracy when a few chosen men and their sole decisions shape the lives of others. It is not a democracy when the people have to serve those chosen few and the competencies of the people are limited to making decisions about minor or accessory matters.

I call everyone a liar and a cheater who wants to sell me Switzerland as a democracy.

Down with democracy!

But the people gave this democratic constitution themselves!

It is not easy to stage a capital fraud and it takes more than lucidity not to fall for it. Once, one has undone the web of lies, it is no witchcraft to expose the intrigues.

How, then, have the propagandists of the western “democracies” managed to pull wool over people’s eyes so they are no longer able to see?

With a ruse!

They presented the people a lengthy constitution in which a Trojan horse had been smuggled: freedom of trade, freedom of commerce and freedom of ownership. Officially the constitution was hypocritically boasted as “freedom” next to all the other freedoms – freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly etc. Of course the makers of the constitution did know, that this sole “freedom” totally beats all the other elements of the otherwise democratic constitution. For they, and only they, held the power (money, production places, trade connections etc) firmly in their hands even in those days already. They had nothing to fear from the people, the have-nots.

Their calculation added up, of course. With their “freedom”, they were able to do as they pleased and managed to turn everything upside down.

The sovereignty of the Swiss bursts like a soap bubble, because according to definition only he who controls all means of power passes for sovereign. The medium, which no doubt rules the world and drives everybody, is money. A closer look into the constitution reveals unsparingly the people declared “sovereign” do not own the incredible wealth hoarded since the beginning. No, the authority to dispose over the astronomical sums continues to be explicitly in the hands of a small, but select group of people.

Not only factual, but even from the point of the constitution, Switzerland is, without any objections, a dictatorship of the rich, a perfect example of plutocracy. A miserable nation of beggars watches over the throne, short changed and enslaved by the master who has long taken off with the wealth!

“Do you want to give a select few, who have all the means, so much freedom that once the means are put to the test, your whole life is put upside down?” That would have been the correct question to ask the people.

Only a fool would have agreed to it or someone who was already deeply mired in the dependency and in the privileges of the master.

But it is democracy

if people have the possibility

to change the constitution to their liking any time!

There is no denying that the western constitutions teem with democratic details, i.e. the possibility of revision. That is exactly the wool that gets pulled over people’s eyes!

These details may belie only the fool who knocks everything on the head again.

Let us imagine a constitution, in which a vote by the people is designated and even ordered by an almighty and united in himself king, saying that it can be changed again any time. Is that a democracy? Surely not, it is an almighty king that rules! In this case a monarchy was established.

As we know to allow a minority, who has all the means and power, to do as they please, is a plutocracy. And it will stay that way, regardless of provisions for changes or not.

The monarchy as well as the plutocracy would become democracies once the people with the help of changes in the constitution overthrow the king or the plutocrat, not only on paper, but actually claim the power for themselves. Without that everything remains the same.

Switzerland has put the example to the test already. Some years ago the people had the chance of a constitution initiative, in which they would have had the possibility to have an ever so small say in the domain in which the entrepreneur exercises his all encompassing regime. The submission did not go anywhere.

The reasons are quite obvious. People, declared incompetent through lifelong manipulation and oppression, cannot ever seize power! It’s enough for the masters to threaten about the likelihood of an impending chaos resulting if people weren’t going to allow the rulers to go on. Ultimately, the positions were already assigned: from the general manager to all the bosses down to the small sheriff, who has the power to intimidate and beat up citizens without fear that anybody will take note of it.

If the top charges, via right of co-determination, had wavered, the ones on the bottom would have started to wobble as well. This meant not only for the masters, but for the whole hierarchy, to defend the order of precedence.

Therefore, Switzerland may present the most obvious: a revision towards democracy did not explicitly take place. Freedom of trade, freedom of commerce and freedom of ownership still have control over what is happening. The plutocrats asserted their power.

But the people can vote those into parliament

who represent their interest!

Only a gullible person falls for that kind of argument. Much like one can flog a Hitler to power via election, so can anyone be catapulted into a seat of parliament! As this dead advertising guy used to put it so aptly: “Give me a million and I will make a Swiss Federal Council out of a bag of potatoes!”

Money rules the world. The nipper with a penny can direct the hand of the kiosk lady merely into the chewing gum shelf. Nobody disputes that it is not the people, but the masters who own the money.

Nothing is easier for them to sell their own representatives to the people much like any other product and to guarantee themselves a comfortable majority. Even the minorities are all right with them, since they give the impression of a democracy and stabilize at the same time.

Apart from that, the parliament or the government on the whole is responsible for auxiliary functions only.

But in the constitution it says that

everybody, without exception, has the same rights.

Therefore everybody has a chance.

That is democracy!

Don’t make me laugh!

Let’s take Mister X, who has a billion, and the emancipated Mister Y, who owns nothing. Both start doing business. Mister X goes to the bank and without hesitation receives a loan worth another billion at 5% interest. He drums together a few cohorts who find him a market niche. They build a factory and in no time profits start pouring in, which pay 10% on the total capital invested. He keeps the 10% for his own billion and the 5% for the borrowed billion. The other 5% he delivers to the bank, which uses the money to catch a bunch of small time borrowers. The cash check of Mister X yields already assets of a billion and 150 million.

Let’s turn to good-natured Mister Y. He too asks for a loan at the bank. “With nothing you get nothing”, is the laconic answer he gets. Regardless, he proceeds to get to work. After some years and all kinds of effort he manages some modest success. One million he calls his own. Mister X has of course doubled his billion in the same time and paid back his loan.

Both of them push on. Business comes up with the usual profit of 10%. Therefore at the end of the year Mister X has over two billion and 200 million. Mister Y limps hopelessly behind with one million and hundred thousand. The only chance he would have is if he were to push even harder than Mister X.

The horrendous material differences already existed when the constitutions were hammered out. They prohibit a democracy.

Yes, but do you want conditions like in Russia?

The last ace in the hole of Mister X! When I hear him talk like that I instantly imagine him at home in Russia. I am sure that he would have even there submitted himself among the masters and told the Russian critic about the evil of capitalism.

And, at least, rightly so!

What we condemn about the Russians, the same thing happens in the west in a fashion that is much the same, carefully hidden and hushed up. Crimes against human rights chase each other.

I think of the war here at peacetime: where the keepers of order and the breakers of order clash. Deadly shots, tortures, beastly beatings and the likes are regular occurrences. I can report this because I’ve seen it and do not need to refer to the recently deceased professor of justice Peter Noll, who compared Zurich’s criminal justice with the Turkish fascist military justice.

I also think of the daily carnage in the streets and at places of work. Everybody who sits behind a steering wheel (and the same is applicable for those who install a dangerous plant) knows all too well about the errors of humans as well as machines. He knows he and the other traffic participants might become careless or that a technical defect can happen. He knows that children as well as old folks on occasion cross the road without any notice. Every time when he starts up his dangerous vehicle he has to anticipate the worst. He accepts this. It is potential intent, which is the same as intent. Should a person get killed, it is intentional homicide.

Just imagine the havoc for the automobile producers, in case a judge would measure with this only correct measuring stick! Nobody could drive around anymore because that would be intended manslaughter, or murder, and is therefore a criminal offense. The big fat business would evaporate into thin air!

Judges, themselves motorists, tend to find a person guilty of involuntary manslaughter only. It is permitted to continue the slaughter of victims on the road. The big industrialists will happily contract masses of moribund people.

I call to mind the local psychiatric institutions. A few years ago I managed after some effort to have an inmate released after a decade long incarceration where he was daily injected with insidious neurotoxic substances. He had to endure a horrendous fate like the prominent Russian, who lives out his life in a less inhumane exile and who the western propaganda plays up in order to avoid paying attention to its own dirt.

Leave me alone with the Russians. After having spent over a year in communist countries, I would like to say the east is no better than the west or the other way around.

Just on a sidebar: I also spent three quarters of a year in Africa. It felt like going from bad to worse, coming from Switzerland and going to the African tropics. However with a more critical eye I find myself back in Sturzbach again.

Down with the Constitutional State!

In my occupation as a lawyer I sit across clients and listen to their problems, which are usually caused by plutocrats. Often this means getting in touch with the opponent – in employment issues likely with a subordinate of the factory owner – in order to reach an agreement. Should the negotiations break down, the case frequently goes to court. In criminal proceedings – my area of expertise – the demand for a penalty is an inevitable fight in the court.

There “justice” is administered, no less of a deceit than the one with democracy!

Let’s imagine Mister Burglar was able to find access to Mister X’s abode. We have met this gentleman before. His wealth has meanwhile – keep in mind the interest on top of interest and an unforeseen investment profit – swollen to two and a half billion.

Gladly Mister Burglar helps himself and takes a mere 10 thousand with him. But his luck does not last long. In the midst of great celebration with friends at a pub, police drags him away and puts him behind bars. In order to be released he instantly confesses, looks me up and assigns me his defense.

Because of an incredible sloppiness by the prosecutor, which stays undiscovered, two different courts each get a bill of indictment with all the copies of the file. One of those courts – and now the luck of my client continues – is made up of three left winged POCH judges and the other is made up of three right winged SVP judges.

A little puzzled, we soon receive the two citations to the main trials, investigate, discover the mistake and remain silent.

We find ourselves in the halls of the courts, one date following the other within a short period of time. According to our rehearsed plan we ask for acquittal both times. The only evidence on hand is my client’s confession, which he, with the same words, retracts every time. The verdict will be sent to us in writing, we are told.

We leave with a mischievous delight, because we already know, what has to come. The POCH judges of course think of Mister X, whose business manners they vehemently despise, as the biggest thief and show my client sympathy. To the SVP judges on the other hand my client is the thief and Mister X is a respected citizen. The verdicts turn out accordingly: the left acquits and the retraction of the confession is legitimate. The right finds him guilty and the retraction is not valid.

One does not have to have read Tucholsky and his summation of German judges, who had sentenced left and right winged people to death, to know that, apart from the sloppiness, my assumptions are indeed realistic.

The argument can be made with any issue with identical facts of the case can be judged differently by a lower or upper level of jurisdiction. Such cases are a dime a dozen.

They disclose the fraud. The POCH judges as well as the SVP judges, the lower and the upper level of jurisdiction all have the same exact law in front of them every time. Logically the same words ought to come out of their mouths, when dealing with the exact same facts of the case.

The case is the same, the law is the same, but the verdicts are different???? It is easy to solve the puzzle. The judges are different!

Not one verdict administers justice, but only the arbitrary opinions of the judges get expressed. The more their worldviews and morals differ the more their verdicts deviate from one another.

To prevent this, there are rigid selection methods in the justice system, which make sure all the sheep stay close together. Examples like the one of a German district judge (my regards to you!), who notoriously imposed the minimum penalty until he was discharged, do not set standards.

If one puts the humbug about the justice system aside, one runs without question into power. This power not only determines the justice system, but also both of the other supreme powers of the western plutocracies. Everyone knows the quarrels in parliament: the POCH and consorts want this, while the SVP and company wants that. Since they made sure of a majority, they assert themselves every time. This has nothing to do with justice, but everything to do with power.

Down with the constitutional state as well!

If we look in a succinct phrase at the connection between the people and the state, we’ll find the people, who clean up the shit of the master and the state who organizes the clean up and who drives the people.

The privilege for the rich,

the duty for the naïve.

Mister X has grown close to our hearts by now, so we want to invite him to accompany us for a little while. We are already familiar with his wealth. Btw, this year 250 millions profit are in the books. Somebody must owe him a nice sum of money!

We’ll get back to that.

Mister X handed over the management of his empire to five cunning and career minded people making up a board of directors and the chair above he gave to an outstanding, dynamic and shifty senior manager. The team, equipped with all the possible management qualities, runs his whole show in such a sovereign manner, that all he has to do is show up at the regular annual general meeting and watch over that the quarter billion really does come in.

It does come in…

Free and easy he can do with his time as he wishes. He lives in a magnificent palace-like mansion, takes extended trips around the world and knows how to live – a real bon vivant! When he has to pay he pulls his gun – oops, sorry – his checkbook. The checks all have sufficient funds.

Slowly we are growing tired of Monsignore X’s carryings-on. Let us turn to an average citizen. Politely we call him Mister Z or just Z, who lives in an apartment silo in Schwamendingen and is a factory worker in Oerlikon. Mister Z’s apartment has all the conveniences. Only a short time ago his old kitchen and old bathroom have been ripped out and were replaced with the latest. When he bumped into the mailman shortly after he was actually hoping for a love letter. Unfortunately it was only a notification of a rent increase.

In the relatively small living room he managed to squeeze in an impressive wall unit, as well as a set of upholstered furniture, a TV is there naturally, and next to it, it glitters fabulously. I’m not that familiar with it, but it must be a sound system. Endlessly little lamps flicker, blink and whiz in all kinds of colors. Out of respect we won’t bother looking into his bedroom. It’s probably okay. Instead we quickly inspect the common rooms he shares with the other people living in the apartment silo: the staircase and the laundry room.

Mister Z just wasn’t there for the planning.

Since the other income objects of this development do not deviate at all, he does not seem to mind. “Well, well, equal rights are indeed alright.” he mumbles to himself at times.

His car which he lovingly cleans every Saturday, is parked on the side of the street. It goes without saying that he bought the car as well as the already mentioned household effects entirely in installments.

Early in the morning – he is not quite awake yet – advertisement spots and all kinds of babble get in his ears. “Aha, it’s time”, he thinks. Without any further ado, he quickly catches the bus and manages to punch in on time in Oerlikon.

Mister Z works on the assembly line. Since the line is already in motion, he needs no time to get started. Instantly he is fully present. It is dusty and it is noisy. But he’s used to it by now. Lunchroom, bell signal, punch clock and bus - the apartment has him back.

He makes a small detour to the post office and lines up in order to pay his bills. His wages don’t quite make it. “Hopefully the Christmas bonus will come soon”, he thinks. That the post office directs the money back to X who is already going for the third billion, he does not realize of course.

Because he feels kind of down, he jumps into his car to zoom to the shopping center. He checks out this, and he checks out that. Instead of buying a video tape, as he had planned, he ends up signing an installment plan for a personal computer. The sales person affirms that with the computer he’ll be able to do the most amazing things. Once at home, his attempts to use the thing productively turn into failure. He puts the apparatus in the wall unit, making sure that – according to the house rules – not to bother his neighbors on the other side of the paper-thin wall. The rest of the evening he sits in front of the tube like a couch potato. What happens the other days and the 49 weeks, year after year, we already know. The other three weeks have already been mentioned.

In Switzerland there are a few thousand Xs and a few million Zs. The Xs consolidate astronomical sums that must yield interest every year. It is the task of the many Zs to make the billions upon billions for the Xs.

This is madness!

It has nothing to do with freedom, democracy and constitutional state, absolutely nothing.

Down with them all!

What to do?

One has to really think to discover why the rich actually need this crazy lie about democracy. History tells us dominance always comes and goes between the tyrant and the oligarch. The people’s task is merely to occasionally bump someone out off office in order to place someone else there, only to do the same thing all over again.

This is exactly what today’s regents fear. Henceforth they hide behind the lie that they aren’t really the ruler.

Actually they are really stupid. They don’t need to hide. Democracy is an impossible thing. It never has existed and never will. It would be easier to eliminate the buck from a herd of deer.

From time immemorial, man has stayed the same. His brain did not grow. With the same anger he decides on war, has the anger somewhat cooled down, he talks about peace. Even if the pyramid at times tumbles in the storm, the pointed end always remains up top.

That Switzerland is apparently one of the oldest democracies is a myth. Since its inception there were the free and the not free, the Stauffachers and Redings had servants. The confederates sent governors in every possible direction. The city dwellers squashed the farmers. For seven years I followed an inner Swiss rural community. No democrats were voted in there, yet local kings, mind you for auxiliary functions only. Even in the old cantons the free ruling Mister X’s dictate behind the scene what has to be done.

The plutocrats only needed to hammer these connections into the people and they would loyally eat out of their hands. Nothing would stop them to stick with their plutocracy. To be honest, a king who says, “The state, that is me” is less despicable than the men here who sham the people by saying, “You have the absolute power.” The cowardice in this does not exactly allude to greatness.

If one looks for the reason why in the history of mankind, war and peace alternate, one can always find excesses. Moderate rulers never have anything to worry about.

These days it is without any doubt that we are headed for the next disaster. The excess, which is remarkable these days, is the imbecility of the people to stick the dough up the plutocrats’ asses and the nerve of the plutocrats to take this dough in order to always throw it at new business ventures. The spiral rotates. The tributes of the people grow immensely. One small spark and an era collapses again. Prospects that the immoderate will wake up generally do not exist.

What is there to do for the person, who is nobody’s master or nobody’s servant, who does not belong to the plutocrats or to the people? Watch how this spectacle plays out? Vamoose? Protest? Hole one-self up? Wait for a shot or a bomb?

Remain one’s own master!

If we survive it, we will know if we were advised wisely.