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John Macgregor (democracy re-design)

@johnmacgregor.bsky.social

640 followers 710 following 1K posts

Author, 'The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power' https://books2read.com/thirddraft Aussie, journo: NYT, SMH Designer, anti-poverty projects, Cambodia #ThirdDraftDemocracy #DemocracyWorks #Vote

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · Aug 25

My recent book interview with Kim Iversen. Our topics:

* War, inequality & govt corruption: insoluble in the current political framework

* And: #PoliticalReform, #SystemChange, #DirectDemocracy, #DeliberativeDemocracy, #ProportionalRepresentation, #VoteByMail, #Subsidiarity, #Referendums...

Revolutions Are Coming To The West: Fixing The Fatal Flaws That Cause Inevitable Collapse

The Kim Iversen Show LIVE | January 30, 2025 John MacGregor was a political journalist who saw firsthand that our current system was beyond repair—so he stepped away for eight years to design a new on

rumble.com

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 3d

I doubt 'the West' minds losing men & materiel at a high rate in Ukraine, as every round expended has to be replaced in the inventory.

That means profits for the donors who bankroll the politicians who launch the wars.

In policy terms, 'the West' = corporations, not politicians or people.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 4d

Our prime responsibility, if we want to end genocide & ecocide—war & homelessness—is to relocate wealth & political power to their separate domains.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

Our politics is bogged down in issues no-one can solve at the level on which they’re being addressed.

Yet electing & re-electing leaders who presided over decades of decline has not convinced Westerners that their political system needs replacing.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 5d

Microplastics in the water, heavy metals in the food chain.

These are not one-offs.

They come from the same place as falling real wages, financial crashes & drug epidemics.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 7d

Currently all our information is controlled by a small handful of media & social media billionaires.

Does this sound normal or healthy?

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 7d

Regularly electing new governments & leaders—who presided over decades of decline—has not yet convinced Westerners that their political system needs replacing.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

Change won't come from anything mainstream (politics, media, think tanks). It'll be ground-up.

The solution is to replace our sham democracies with real ones.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #DemocraticReform

books2read.com/thirddraft

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

- Corporate donors > poor regulation of drugs & food > American health crisis

- Corporate donors > political capture > NATO expansion > Ukraine war

- Israel Lobby corporate donors > political capture > Gaza genocide

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

- Corporate donors were a major factor in the Vietnam war

- Corporate donors were indistinguishable from those who launched the Iraq war

- Corporate donors caused the regulatory capture that underlay the Global Financial Crisis

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 10d

Our crises go back to plutocracy: to Organized Money capturing government policy.

If we don’t fix that, we don’t fix much.

Elect someone from the Right—or the Left. They’ll be subject to the same donor pressures that captured Trump, Biden, & all who preceded them:

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 12d

*From The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power. (Constitutional structures to end the control by wealth of politics, the economy, science, medicine & war.)

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy

books2read.com/thirddraft

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 12d

Democracy isn’t elections. It’s ending the tyranny of wealth, & handing political power to the citizenry.

The ‘democracies' need to democratise.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 12d

Our political framework seems designed to recycle profitable crises.

Wars, pandemics & financial crashes transfer trillions from poor, middle class & government to the already-rich.

Governments wave it through.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 12d

We don’t have social, economic & environmental problems—we have a democracy problem.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 24d

*𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑴𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒄𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅: 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝑨𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝑹𝒐𝒍𝒍 𝑩𝒂𝒄𝒌 𝑺𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 & 𝑪𝒐𝒓𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓. (𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐦𝐲, 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞 & 𝐰𝐚𝐫.)

#Democracy #ThirdDraftDemocracy #DemocraticReform

books2read.com/thirddraft

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 24d

And powerful emotions are powerful distractors.

For as long as we're moved around by these emotional currents, we're blind to the direction of the tide.

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 24d

But government, media & experts keep the populace focused on binaries such as Bush v. Obama, Trump v. Biden, conservative v. liberal, & China v. the United States

These binaries have little impact on the main game (the transfer of our wealth & power to corporations). But they evoke strong emotions.

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 24d

This would be impossible without an extraordinary level of distraction.

That's achieved by focusing us on "inferior binaries": less consequential choices to deflect us from the central one.

Our society's most significant real-world choice is between people power and oligarchy.

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 24d

The hallmark of our era is the transition from flawed democracy to unaccountable elite rule.

(Followed by falling real incomes, Permanent War, mass homelessness, collapsing human health...)

But this remarkable transition is absent from the national conversation (symptoms aside).

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 26d

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #Lobbying #Plutocracy

books2read.com/thirddraft

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 26d

In the US, 2013 to 2017, the Fortune 100 companies spent $2 billion in lobbying, which yielded $399 billion in federal contracts & grants—an ROI of nearly 20,000%.

We worry about war, inequality, chronic illness, cost-of-living...

But our original sin is state capture.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 26d

In Australia, 2012 to 2015, the three major parties received $3.7 million from the oil & gas industry, which yielded $7.7 billion in subsidies—a return-on-investment (ROI) of two thousand to one.

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 26d

Democracy may be the best form of government, but its current incarnation is laughably capturable.

Indeed, nothing in the free market compares with the return-on-investment (ROI) from political donations.

Available now at your favorite digital store!

The Mechanics of Changing the World: Political Architecture to Roll Back State & Corporate Power by John Macgregor

books2read.com

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John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 27d

The West won't solve this uber-problem by electing new leaders.

The problem is systemic.

You only replace a system with a system.

Our cure is democratisation.

Many birds, one stone.

#ThirdDraftDemocracy #Democracy #DemocraticReform

lnkd.in/gy9EYCwe

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

John Macgregor (democracy re-design) @johnmacgregor.bsky.social · 27d

Likewise, the grip of money on national defence has ensured endless war.

Political donations have brought environmental damage by mining giants, vast public rip-offs by superannuation firms, & a corporate chokehold on universities.

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

lnkd.in

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