I have mixed feelings on the subject, but my mind goes back to a button
that one of my friends used to have on her bookbag:
"If voting could change the world, it wouldn't be legal"
food for thought.
Lori T.
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fri Nov 11 10:01:07 MST 1994
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 10:03:24 MST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Election/anarchy
Several different points occur to me on this subject (anarchy & election
distress in general).
First, I think it easy to forget that the vast majority of what
government does is unnoticed and taken for granted. Those things that get press
are the aspects about which there is controversy, but remember that a dominant
purpose of government is the simple act of groups of people combining resources
because much can be accomplished collectively that couldn't be accomplished by
individuals. We could each try to build the street in front of our own house,
or we could combine resources, through "government" and build a road system.
In addition, I think anarchy is simply psychologically untenable...
we are a gregarious, order-loving species. Put ten people *any* ten people in a
room togather for but a single week, and they will have organized themselves,
perhaps even decided upon seperate duties & functions. A "government", in
short, will have formed (even if it is not formalized and called a government).
As far as post-election distress...well, I guess I think these
elections were *exciting*. Much of the western world patted itself on the back
when communism "fell", and took it to be "winning" something. In fact, I
believe what is happening is that the entire communist/democratic dialectic is
falling apart. Communist systems exploded first because they were a bit more
rigid, but large numbers of western democracyies are undergoing profound
turmoil. Large numbers of people in dozens of different countries are coming to
the same conclusion...that might be framed by the words "We are aware of your
corruption, sick of your assumption that your electorate is stupid, and
appalled by the thought that while unable to conduct your personal lives with
anything approaching an ethical viewpoint, you still believe yourselves capable
of determining values for the rest of us."
IMO, a large system, western democracy, is approaching is approaching a
point of fundamental change. What it will transform into cannot be known,
but...in complexity/chaos theory (my own field of study) one of the most basic
and common characteristics of dynamic systems is that as a system approaches a
phase shift, many (if not most) of its rythmic cycles will greatly
(exponentially) speed up the pace of their cycling. In the US (as well as in
many western democracies) the political/social system has been cycling between
(relatively) liberal & conservative perspectives literally since the nation's
formation. [Thus the eighties could have been almost predicted by the sixties].
These cycles have been averaging around 12-20 years. What we have now, however,
is that same cycle speeding up dramatically...remember, the same feeling of
triumph the Republicans feel today was felt by Democrats a mere two years ago.
This is an exhilarating time for those working for large scale
change...the system is approaching a point where major cracks cannot help but
appear...where openings for major structural change (instead of minor surface
adjustments) become possible.
It is time, I think, for those who have long carried the secret feeling
within themselves that there is something they were born to do...some
leadership abilitites that never seemed to find a field of expression (and a
suprising number of people are holding these sensations)...its time, I suspect,
for those souls of beauty and dignity and integrity to ... get ready.
-JRC
