I was reading Ran Prieur's essay: first one in the archives. (found this site by accident, but was gripped by the writing)
Anyway, I saw this comment on democrats:
[i]They want to stop new technologies, but keep the ones they have. They want to stop cutting down forests, but they don't want to let any farmland go back to forest. They want to keep hospitals and schools and transportation and manufacturing and business and government as we know them in the industrialized world, build the same systems in the rest of the world, and polish away all the rough edges and differences until you can tell one part of the world from another only by the decorative lifeless trappings of the different dead cultures that industrial society exterminated. And they want to make it all possible, and sustainable, through numb efficiency and puritanical self-sacrifice and the perfect control of an educated elite. I've made it sound bad, but they're already making it sound good: solar-powered computer-steered cars that never crash, and voluntary conservation of resources, and decisions made by ecologists for the good of all; every person in the world has health care and education and comfort and security, and all the traditional cultures are preserved.[/i]
listen, I'm a Canadian, and I don't vote for our "liberals" (let alone our conservatives), and yes, the democrats in the USA are just another social elite that wants to control everything, but preserve the status quo. But, I must say that you don't take into account the fact that their politics probably don't necessarily reflect exactly what the [i]individual [/i]'s opinion of which direction the society should move in. This is true in just about any political party. Any party that says: "We want to shake everything down, break down this whole system and build again sensibly from the ground up, sensibly this time..." (or something like that, I don't know, maybe you're morally opposed to the thought of "building" a society) - is ever going to get elected. Never. You've got to get the changes on people and corporations on little step at a time. Just as fascim can come along on "the pitter-patter of little feet" (gradually, that is). So can positive, cultural change.
I won't be holding my breath waiting for that "positive, social change" to come from political parties though, but they could certainly be a part of it. I mean, lots of small political parties, that together wield alot of votes, get a bill passed here and there, protecting farmer's rights, phasing out stuff like factory farming, pesticides, etc.. I don't see that happening in a 3 (I counted 2 of them as half each! not meticulously calculated, I'll have you know) party system like my countries: Canada, or the 2 party system of the US.
again, not holding my breath, but hey. I still don't buy that stuff about "I don't vote, cuz it doesn't matter" stuff. Not that I'm accusing Ran Prieur of that. I mean, if you live in the US, ok, I can't blame you (there's always Nader, I like that guy). That's right, your vote doesn't matter. Deal with it, that's how they want you to feel, by you I mean that small proportion of the population who realises just how bullcrap politics/democracy is. (and isn't just saying that to avoid having to educate oneself on current events, social issues, etc..). It takes like, 10 minutes to vote (where I live anyway), and I had to walk to the polling station, which was open for 2 weeks before the election (in my riding anyway: (they call it a county in the US I think) , so people could come in any time of the day to vote in advance and beat the rush.
I see these images of Haitians in the latest election getting up before the sun is fully up so they can walk the whole day to go vote, in an election that was/is an obvious ploy by the elite in that country (and abroad) to try to legitimize their grab to power ("lets not place polling stations in the slums, ok?"). The people there voted anyway, and at least a few thousand of them (probably more) even made "protest votes" (which were, for the first time, allowed). Can you imagine that? getting up early in the morning, walking all that way, just for a protest vote? Something to think about.
Totally drifted off topic, but that's how I write.
Anyway, I saw this comment on democrats:
[i]They want to stop new technologies, but keep the ones they have. They want to stop cutting down forests, but they don't want to let any farmland go back to forest. They want to keep hospitals and schools and transportation and manufacturing and business and government as we know them in the industrialized world, build the same systems in the rest of the world, and polish away all the rough edges and differences until you can tell one part of the world from another only by the decorative lifeless trappings of the different dead cultures that industrial society exterminated. And they want to make it all possible, and sustainable, through numb efficiency and puritanical self-sacrifice and the perfect control of an educated elite. I've made it sound bad, but they're already making it sound good: solar-powered computer-steered cars that never crash, and voluntary conservation of resources, and decisions made by ecologists for the good of all; every person in the world has health care and education and comfort and security, and all the traditional cultures are preserved.[/i]
listen, I'm a Canadian, and I don't vote for our "liberals" (let alone our conservatives), and yes, the democrats in the USA are just another social elite that wants to control everything, but preserve the status quo. But, I must say that you don't take into account the fact that their politics probably don't necessarily reflect exactly what the [i]individual [/i]'s opinion of which direction the society should move in. This is true in just about any political party. Any party that says: "We want to shake everything down, break down this whole system and build again sensibly from the ground up, sensibly this time..." (or something like that, I don't know, maybe you're morally opposed to the thought of "building" a society) - is ever going to get elected. Never. You've got to get the changes on people and corporations on little step at a time. Just as fascim can come along on "the pitter-patter of little feet" (gradually, that is). So can positive, cultural change.
I won't be holding my breath waiting for that "positive, social change" to come from political parties though, but they could certainly be a part of it. I mean, lots of small political parties, that together wield alot of votes, get a bill passed here and there, protecting farmer's rights, phasing out stuff like factory farming, pesticides, etc.. I don't see that happening in a 3 (I counted 2 of them as half each! not meticulously calculated, I'll have you know) party system like my countries: Canada, or the 2 party system of the US.
again, not holding my breath, but hey. I still don't buy that stuff about "I don't vote, cuz it doesn't matter" stuff. Not that I'm accusing Ran Prieur of that. I mean, if you live in the US, ok, I can't blame you (there's always Nader, I like that guy). That's right, your vote doesn't matter. Deal with it, that's how they want you to feel, by you I mean that small proportion of the population who realises just how bullcrap politics/democracy is. (and isn't just saying that to avoid having to educate oneself on current events, social issues, etc..). It takes like, 10 minutes to vote (where I live anyway), and I had to walk to the polling station, which was open for 2 weeks before the election (in my riding anyway: (they call it a county in the US I think) , so people could come in any time of the day to vote in advance and beat the rush.
I see these images of Haitians in the latest election getting up before the sun is fully up so they can walk the whole day to go vote, in an election that was/is an obvious ploy by the elite in that country (and abroad) to try to legitimize their grab to power ("lets not place polling stations in the slums, ok?"). The people there voted anyway, and at least a few thousand of them (probably more) even made "protest votes" (which were, for the first time, allowed). Can you imagine that? getting up early in the morning, walking all that way, just for a protest vote? Something to think about.
Totally drifted off topic, but that's how I write.
