Ironbark Utopia

Sick to death of modern Democratic politics—politicians ceaselessly parroting the party line, the endless spin, the kowtowing to the big corporations, all those broken promises. Professor Gary Ironbark has come up with a new political system, one to replace the outmoded 19th Century methods of Representative Oligarchy and party politics under which we presently labour. It is True Democracy—actual Democracy—issues based Democracy—which has never been practiced because of the impossibility of asking every voter their opinion on every issue. This is no longer so. The Internet and modern technology make it very possible indeed, and Gary sets about making it happen. He has published his ideas on how a genuine, true democracy could be brought about in a book, but is rather surprised when a bunch of students take him seriously and create a society in his name. The concept spreads to other campuses, at first in Australia, then overseas, despite Ironbark’s determination to deny their validity. Soon there is a political party, the Ironbark Utopian Party, which gradually moves from modest to major success, and Ironbark is the reluctant figurehead leader. But when conventional government suddenly collapses under the weight of its own irrelevance and corruption, Ironbark is propelled to power and given the chance to implement his ideas.
Ironbark is a rather refreshing sort of leader, embarrassingly honest, fearlessly incorruptible and utterly devoid of interest in the usual trappings of status and power. Except for the aphrodisiac effect, for Ironbark does have a secret love—she is his greatest ally and most dangerous foe, but unfortunately, she also is married to someone else, Pragmatic forces strive to combat him at every level, but after a few disasters and many slip-ups, Ironbark actually gets his system to work. And now he now comes into fierce and ruthless competition with the real basis of power on the planet, the Corporations. No longer able to hide behind their nationalistic political puppets, the corporate giants step into the open and bare their teeth. But Ironbark has a plan to handle them as well. Ironbark brilliantly achieves his dream, but there is a Faustian price to be paid, although not to any imaginary devil, but to all humanity.