MOVEMENT, poster. Copenhagen,
Denmark 2002Introduction:
MOVEMENT is a political movement that any person ought to take part in. The aim of MOVEMENT is to find ways of living with as small concentrations of power as possible.
Background:
There is a logical relation between persons and the rights of persons. Persons should be treated as persons and therefore as having rights. If we deny this assertion it goes wrong: here is a person, but this person should not be treated as a person, or: here is a person, who should be treated as a person, but not as having rights. Therefore we can only talk about persons in a way that makes sense if we know that persons have rights.
The fundamental purpose of politics is to protect the rights of persons. If we deny this assertion we get: the fundamental purpose of politics is not to protect the rights of persons. This suggests that one of the basic tasks of politicians could be, for example, to renounce the rights of themselves and of others. This has no meaning. Or that there is a more important purpose to politics which does not have anything to do with persons and therefore also has nothing to do with the rights of persons. That is plain nonsense. Therefore, we now know that the basic purpose of politics is to protect the rights of persons. In other words we cannot talk about politics in a way that makes sense without the assumption that the fundamental purpose of politics is to protect the rights of persons.
Concentrations of power do not always respect the rights of persons. If we deny this fact, we get: concentrations of power always respect the rights of persons. This does not correspond with our experiences. Concentrations of power characterise our societies. Concentrations of power force persons to concentrate on participating in competition and power games, in order to create a social position for themselves. Concurrently with the concentrations of power dominating our conscious mind and becoming decisive to our situations, the significance of our fellow humans diminishes. And our own significance becomes the significance we have for concentrations of power, the growth of concentrations of power, and the conflicts of concentrations of power. It is obvious that if we want to protect the rights of persons, we have to organize in as small concentrations of power as possible.
Expanding MOVEMENT:
Any person can expand MOVEMENT by initiating attempts to live with as small concentrations of power as possible.
MOVEMENT situations
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