Dear friends
re Rahul on the current political log jam, eg:
"<snip> Politicians have successfully convinced {..} apolitical types that politics do not
affect the quality of our lives and, most egregious of all, that they have no control over their own government."
Now, the fact is that:
'We' get the politicians we allow to be pre-selected, then elected, for us.
This failure is, in large part, because progressive 'forces' use the
systems of oppression to try to replace that oppression - ie the
creation of sectional interest parties (even if notionally green or
anti-capitalist), which then are structures exactly like the parties
they claim to compete against.
It's the:
'You can't use Satan to throw out Satan, or use mud to wash mud off
your face.'
Principle.
Apart from a whole-sale replacement of the electoral structure - say, by
a system that selects representatives from the electorate at random for
a single, but paid, term of service - the only option I can see is for a
Party to emerge that is based wholly on the values it seeks to see
implemented - eg selecting by lot from its paid-up, committed membership
individuals as one term candidates, responsive to instant recall by the
Party, or, if lobbied through the Party, by the remainder of the electorate.
(There's precedent for this from the 17th Century politics in England
that started off this full-franchise electoral system - see the Putney
debates, Christopher Hill's books, and, probably, much that's not been
published too!)
Finally - unless that same values- and principles-rooted/routed Party
has got a full understanding of:
a) How the system operates at present,
b) What the alternatives to it are, and,
c) What the sustainable, equitable, anti-economic-inequality
alternative (that, searched-for, word again!) is - and also
d) How realistically to get there.
Then . . . . we're stuffed (as turkeys before the oven - of global
burning?!).
Sprouts anyone?
xo
john
************
Good so far on 'the word' - any more suggestions?
Hope so!
xo
j
*************
Rahul Mediratta wrote:
>I recently updated my blog with a new posting regarding our depoliticized times entitled "A Big Mac combo, please. Hold the pickles and the politics". To read more, access the posting at: http://winstoninwonderland.blogspot.com
>
>Some quotes from the posting:
>
>"the Canadian public increasingly rate politicians near the bottom of occupational respect surveys....In the 2006 federal election, only 65% of eligible Canadians casted a ballot"
>
>"Individuals who care little for political affairs
>and charge that politics bear little significance over their lives,
>are, in fact, the individuals who are most affected by politics. Politicians
>have successfully convinced these apolitical types that politics do not
>affect the quality of our lives and, most egregious of all, that they
>have no control over their own government."
>
>
>Best,
>
>Rahul Mediratta
>BHS Honours, Health Policy
>http://winstoninwonderland.blogspot.com
>
>
>
>
>
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