the state of government.

after talking about american politics all night.
thought you might like to read this from michael d higgins,
an Irish politician.
it's from awhile back, well the eighties, but alot of it applies to todays world.

"one of the most discernable and alarming trends in contemporary society is the acceptance of politics, society and the economy as seperate spheres.

With the wealthy getting wealthier and the poor getting poorer, this rupture will be a naked confrontation between the excluded and the powerful, between the technologically sophisticated and the technologically manipulated and between consumers and the consumed ....

the choice is clear: a citizenship rooted in a democratic agenda, socially inclusive and politically accountable, with an economy viewed as instrumental.

or a citizenship founded upon a populist consumerism, where rights are defined by purchasing power, society is modeled as a conflict zone, and the political system is construed as a place of corruption."

.......why did we choose option no.2?

Yeah. The good ol' USA definitely took the latter route.

The problem is a direct democracy becomes so impractical when a country
becomes so enormous.

I think my government teacher had the right idea in highschool. She wanted to
buy a private island, for her own country, declare war on the U.S., surrender as
soon as they showed up and then wait for them to "rebuild" her economy.

The wealthy keep getting wealthier because they keep doing what made them wealthy. The same goes for the poor.

because "toys" (really any and anything we can buy) are the opiate of the masses....Marx once said it about religion, but it is more true about consumerism.

it makes us feel like everything is ok...at least in our own little spheres.

to be politically accountable we would have to climb out of our comfort zone

yea a direct democracy becomes inpractical when a country becomes so technologiclay economcly advanced and enourmouse , but we still can get as close as we can to one cant we?? a great example is switzerland who basicly have a referendum every week and it has one of the worlds best economies.

I am an optimist. I think we are waking up and many would like to see option one, but to do that we need to make the corperation heal. Take them out of politics and make sure that the people feel they have a voice and them use it.

I think that much of this is our own falt, and we need to be informed voters when we vote and people need to begin again to talk about issues, rather than how the Bears are doing.

so people are poor because they don't try hard enough?,
that's ...i dunno, just silly thinking.
if you have in your mind some Oprah story about a poor down and out southern girl who rose to be the richest woman in america through her dedication and, well just general awsomeness as being the realisable goal of an individual in an economy ....you're deluded.

do you think people arn't held back?, that everyone is equal?,
then you havn't been looking hard enough,or at all.