Forum Post: If Elections Could Change Things, They'd Be Illegal
Posted 11 years ago on May 7, 2012, 6:39 a.m. EST by veron
(-39)
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In America, as in Greece...
"Instead of cultivating illusions about change through elections, it would be more sincere to move quickly towards a post-representational system of Direct Democracy."
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/05/20125493228914268.html
The only way to bring real change in America is to change an OBSOLETE POLITICAL SYSTEM MADE FOR 18th century rich landowners.
Those delegates - rich and landowners - who choose the candidates don't give a D*MN about people. The only way to change things is that people choose DIRECTLY.
I think your right in all respects...its a states quo out of date and redundant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSLwj0neLWk
Change can come to the various democracies, http://occupywallst.org/forum/free-democracy-amendment/ but the people have to want it by first realizing that democracy in and of itself doesn't make one free. The key is through the initiative process. Where there is democracy without the initiative process (as is the case for 26 of the United States), there is no freedom.
good article,. and I must say I do agree. representational government IS the problem. It is way too corruptible, and not enough democracy, voting once every few YEARS is nowhere near a participatory government, and hardly a democracy. http://www.globalsafe.org read the section on voting!
“What better way to enslave a man than to give him the vote and tell him he’s free.” -Albert Camus
http://osixs.org/Rev2_menu_commonsense.aspx
One problem with allowing people to choose directly is that the media can be used to influence them. In this way, the one percent can still control the process.
Another problem is that with a 3.4Trillion dollar budget, Im not sure hte people that work have enough time to study the issues enough to make informed decisions.
Yes, that's why representatives are good, but our representatives don't represent us. And many citizens are confused about the basic issues as well.
Confucius confronted the corruption of his time by forming a school that taught future government officials not only to be smart but also to be good. Eventually his teaching system was made available throughout China.
I think we need something like that in our modern world. Perhaps OWS can think about forming itself into more of a school.
We have an educational work group, and I helped social outreach spread some decent literature.
But I think we lose sight of the TYPE of people we choose to represent us. If someone has had some problems (like 99% of us) then we cast them out. We end up with goody goody yes men.
Yes, I understand. There is so much diversity in this group it would be hard to establish a curriculum.
I think what we need is something like a distance learning degree program.
The main problem is a cultural one. When we were killing it, we had about 400 people on average every weekend. Then the left media started embracing us, and the right started attacking, and those who were looking for something new started to see this was going to lead to the same stuff as before.
But even in the beginning, we were only getting tops 1400 people at GA. In a city of 2.2 million. I told them that 1% of the population showing up would be 20,000. There is a lot of work to do.
You can lead the horse to water, but....
As the economy continues to get worse, which I think is the only thing it can do now, more people will realize the necessity of this movement.
Some people have said we are building our own Fema camps. The gov is allowing us to get used to living like the middle ages again. I found that very disturbing on many levels.
With all the dread that we face in the world these days, I think it is important to remember that the power of the elite is crumbling now. Their financial system is collapsing. They are definitely not all powerful as some would imagine.
And just as we are people who stand up against them, there are also whole countries in the world who stand up against them, and in this way, we have very powerful allies.
Yes, true. But sometimes a determined group can make a difference, though it requires a lot of focus and clarity.
I agree 110%.
That extra 10% is what its going to take.
Willy Wonka Invention Room Scene
An option could be to give citizens oversight power of their government as described in the chart labeled Government 2.0 here:
http://osixs.org/Rev2_menu_commonsense.aspx