Politicians: Creators of Nothing
The late futurist Jacque Fresco, Co-founder of The Venus Project, once observed that politicians create nothing. They do not design the bridges we cross, the buildings we live and work in, create the art or entertainment we enjoy, invent the medicines we rely on, or farm the food we eat. Those achievements belong to engineers, doctors, farmers, innovators, creatives, and communities. Politicians arrive afterwards, to pass laws about inventions they do not understand, to tax them, to profit from them, or to prohibit them out of fear of the unknown.
History itself confirms this. The breakthroughs that have changed and advanced humanity — electricity, the internet, vaccines, renewable energy, even agriculture itself — did not emerge from kings and queens, parliaments or presidential palaces. They came from dreamers and doers, from problem-solvers rooted in the real world.
Yet we continue to organize our societies around politicians, elevating them to pedestals as if they hold the keys to human progress. The result of this is the crisis we face today, a global political leadership that cannot solve the problems of the 21st century because it was never designed or trained to.
The Extractive Politics of Scarcity and Control
Politicians thrive on scarcity. Their power depends on making people believe resources are limited and only they can distribute them. Scarcity gives them leverage. It justifies taxation, patronage, and repression. But this scarcity is often artificial. There is enough food to feed everyone on planet earth, yet millions starve because profit-driven systems waste and hoard. There is enough knowledge to solve climate change and other ecological challenges, yet politicians stall, huff and puff because they fear disrupting powerful interests, mainly owners of capital. There is enough land, water, and technology to create abundance, but centralized elites prefer dependence as it keeps them relevant.
Scarcity politics is a deliberate form of control. It keeps citizens pleading for handouts instead of organizing to address challenges.
Who Really Solves Humanity’s Problems?
Let’s look around our societies and ask: when a crisis strikes, who takes action? A good example is during the recent COVID-19 pandemic. It was doctors, nurses, scientists, and mutual aid networks that saved lives — while many politicians retreated to bunkers as others enriched themselves through corrupt procurement. During ongoing climate disasters, it is local volunteers, engineers, and farmers who rebuild and adapt — while politicians argue endlessly in parliaments and at conferences. During youth uprisings such as the resent #GenZ ones, it is artists, coders, influencers, and community organizers who give shape to change — while politicians unleash tear gas, bullets, abductions and limitless fake promises.
The truth is stark: humanity’s progress rests not on politicians but on problem-solvers.
- Engineers design renewable energy, water systems, tech and infrastructure.
- Artists entertain the masses.
- Scientists advance medicine, technology, and environmental solutions.
- Farmers feed billions.
- Teachers nurture future generations.
- Doctors and nurses treat ailments
- Organizers and communities create solidarity and governance from the ground up.
Politicians? They legislate after the fact, too often in ways that protect political and business elites and business, rather than humanity.
A Broken System Clinging to Relevance
Why do we still elevate politicians? Habit, tradition, and propaganda. The modern state — especially in Africa — is a colonial inheritance. Its centralized structures were built to extract on behalf of a few, not empower the many. To commodify everything, including land, labour, education and healthcare, not to dignify the citizens. The ruling African elites inherited these systems and have used them ever since to maintain privilege, taking the looting of state resources (extraction) to a different level.
But the people are awakening, and the cracks are widening. Corruption scandals, repression, policy paralysis, and economic collapse are driving Kenyans and Africans everywhere to question whether these clueless politicians are the right stewards of Africa’s future. Of humanity’s future. Spoiler alert: they are not!
Toward a Different Future
If legacy politicians cannot deliver, who will? The answer is both ancient and futuristic: community organising guided by the values of Utu, empowered by knowledge, creativity, and technology.
Let us imagine a world organized not around parliamentary assemblies but around problem-solving assemblies. Let us imagine decisions made not by elites, but by active citizens, innovators, and professionals collaborating with their communities. Let us imagine resources distributed not through patronage, but through transparent, cooperative systems. This is not fantasy or utopian. It is the logical next step in humanity’s evolution.
Utu: the Ethic of Abundance
At the heart of this new future is Utu — the recognition that “I am because we are.” Utu philosophy rejects the scarcity mindset. It affirms that humanity thrives in cooperation, and has done so for millennia, and not in competition. It reminds us that human progress is not measured by individual wealth but by our collective well-being. That we have conquered seemingly insurmountable challenges by coming together, not through individualistic pursuits. There is a reason all major global religions are largely based on The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It is a principle of Utu.
Utu insists that governance is about service, not control. That leadership is temporary, rotational, and accountable
Utu insists that governance is about service, not control. That leadership is temporary, rotational, and accountable. That a good economy must be regenerative, balancing human needs with the ecosystem for it to be sustainable. Where politicians divide, Utu unites. Where politicians exploit, Utu restores.
Reimagining Our Economies
An economy rooted in Utu would look nothing like the colonial extractive, exploitative systems of today. It would be decentralized, cooperative, and regenerative:
- Food: Communities organize food sovereignty through local farming networks and cooperatives. Hunger is eliminated by prioritizing access over export profits.
- Energy: Renewable energy is decentralized — solar, wind, microgrids owned by communities, not monopolies.
- Housing: Land and shelter are managed as common goods, not speculative commodities.
- Finance: Community savings groups, credit unions, and decentralized finance replace predatory loans.
- Work: Labour is not about survival but contribution. Work becomes meaningful when aligned with community needs and ecological balance.
We have done it countless times before. An Utu-based economy is an economy of abundance. Not because resources are infinite, but because they are shared wisely and regeneratively. Because there is enough for everybody’s needs despite the greed.
“… there is enough food to feed everyone in the world unless governments decide to deny it to people. We know that because 8 billion people are being fed on this planet every day, except in places where governments have decided to create food shortages.
We can also house people because, again, around the world, almost everybody is housed.
We can clothe people. We can educate them. And in a great many cases, we can provide everybody with healthcare, although not always adequate, but it could be if we wanted it to be.
And, perhaps most particularly important now is that there is enough renewable energy in the world for everyone to have access to it. In other words, we are capable of meeting everyone’s needs if we want to and if we can create systems to ensure that they can have access to the resources they require for those needs to be met.”
Reimagining Our Governance
Governance, too, must be restructured. No more distant elites making decisions they don’t understand. Instead:
- Citizen/People’s assemblies deliberate at local levels.
- Participatory budgeting allows communities to decide resource allocation.
- Rotational leadership prevents career politicians.
- Accountability by proximity ensures leaders are answerable to their neighbours, not distant financiers.
- Global solidarity networks connect communities to share knowledge and strategies.
This is democracy reimagined. It is governance returning to its original form: rooted in The People. And has been done right here in Kenya, ask the people of Makueni County under the Governorship of Professor Kivutha Kibwana.
Reimagining Our Work
“Work” is one of the great distortions of modern politics. Politicians campaign on “creating jobs,” but jobs are not created by parliaments. Jobs are created by entrepreneurs, communities, and problem-solvers. Politicians often destroy more livelihoods than they protect.
In an Utu-based system, work would be redefined. It would not only be wage (slave) labour but also raising a family, caregiving, teaching, farming, healing, inventing, and organizing. It would be contributions to the community and the ecosystem. Automation and technology, instead of threatening livelihoods as is the case today, would be tools to liberate people from drudgery — if resources are shared equitably. Work then stops being about survival and becomes about purpose.
The Abundance Paradigm
For centuries, the political class convinced us that scarcity was inevitable. The truth, however, is that we live in an age of abundance. We have the knowledge, technology, and resources to feed, shelter, and empower every human being on earth while regenerating the planet. The only barrier we face is political will — or rather, political obstruction.
Our challenge is to reorganize society so that these problem-solvers, guided by Utu Philosophy, become the centers of governance and the economy
We must bypass the current elites and embrace Utu…
