[snip]Keith, what we're into here is the thorny question of the extent to which the people of a modern democracy are responsible for the commitments their leaders make on their behalf. IMHO, they are responsible,
WHat could this possibly mean? How could it be operationalized?
If Bush (or the U.S. military, etc.) commit a war crime, should *I* be tried along with the likes of Goering and Speer (or even Kissinger and O. North)? Even if I voted for Gore (or Nader)?
Should I be made to pay reparations for what they did? I barely make enough money to have a moderate life as it is.
How can powerless individuals be held accountable for the actions of their "representatives"? I called Senator Clinton's office to try to get some help with something entirely patriotic and I was given the brushoff.
*Now* ! There *is* a way citizens can make a difference, but I doubt it'w what you had in mind. Timothy McVeigh made more diference than most ordinary citizens.
I think the ontological status of the individual person in mass society is a profound problem (not really, since each individual soon enough is dead, and as Don Quixote observed:
There is no memory which time does not efface,
ANd no pain to which death does not bring an end.So what?).
I think "the Scandanavian model", and the conclsions of the study _Work in America_ which the Nixon Administration comissioned, which also suggested the desirability of greater worker participation in work group self-management would at least begin to try to turn the juggernaut around.
But maybe, by "people", you are not referring to individual human beings, but to that quasi-real entity "the American people", who are everybody in general and nobody in particular? That would remind me of when galaxies "collide": such a collision does not imply that even a single individual star from one galaxy shashes into a star from the other galaxy -- but the two galaxies, nonetheless, can be so drastically upheaved that it no longer is possible to say that either galaxy continues to exist. Or they can pass thru each other like ghosts crosing paths, perhaps?
In what ways do you propose I am responsible for what the U.S. government does? What do you want me to do about it? (Please substitute yourself and your government in the preceding two sentences, unless you are a high government oficial, in which case you can probably find some good reason why you are not responsible for whatever happens).
I find it very discouraging to be a "nobody", but I don't see what I can do. Maybe you can illuminate me?
\brad mccormick (transcendental subjectivity is not
necesarily political agency)--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------------------------------------------- Visit my website ==> http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/
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