Kate wrote: > The part I don't agree with is that your opinion that some people may have > been brainwashed or not educated properly.
I think they brainwash themselves and a lot of that does stem from apathy and disillusionment. I also think people hearing other people constantly tell that that it is all an "illusion" and that some big unknown secret force rules everything anyway so their vote doesn't matter also after awhile of hearing it enough serves to demoralize and discourage people, too. If the schools were teaching the precepts of our government, constitution and system the proper way, I cannot see how people would forget that they have a voice when they come of voting age. Maybe some people, if they don't win on everything they vote for, think it is worthless to vote. There have been many, many things that have happened in the vote over my lifetime that made me ill, and even scared enough to want to leave the country but it never stopped me from voting. I can live with differing views and don't feel that I must always have my way or else it's all unfair to me. I have personally worked on grass roots efforts where, in a very short time, people prevailed over powerful interests because of the intelligence and energies they put into the effort. I am not of the mindset that the "government" should always automatically do for me, like they are some parent that must always know all my needs and give me I want. To me, that kind of mindset belongs to people who want to relinquish their freedom as individuals and I think individual freedom is the most important thing to protect and fight for. The original founders of the country had such a fill of being dictated to by their European overlords that they set up the U.S. to where the people tell the government what to do and not vice versa. I may be totally naive but that it what I've always been taught and understand and their writings on the subject are there for all to read. If other people come along and try to tell me that's not really the way it is, that is their interpretation and not mine. >In this case the "they" would be corporate interests or lobbyists or even those in the > pentagon, to bring this back to where we started. I'm really hesitant to ask this question and I'm not aiming it at you specialifcally Kate, because others here, too, have made these allusions to "corporations" here quite a lot with the implication that they are the root of all evil. What is this all about? Are all corporations evil, even the ones who process and deliver our food to us, the ones who bring us alternative energy, the ones who bring us medicine, the ones who bring us everything most need to live their lives. Are all lobbyists evil, even the ones who lobby for the environment, like the Sierra Club or education or for consumer protections? Corporations to me are really just collectives of people, although not everyone is paid equally no matter what they put in. Sure there are lobbyists who are corrupt but not all lobbyists and there are laws or can be laws to regulate them. People who depend on their job to put food on their table and a roof over their head. I read about these organizations who vilify the "corporation" and wonder what this vilification does to improve or enhance our community. They wish the downfall of millions of peoples' livelihoods? Probably a third of the people in the U.S. if not more, work for corporations. Sure it is not neccessaily fun to have to go sit in a office 8 hours a day when we'd rather be off doing what we really love to do. Sure we'd all rather have a bigger nicer house like the boss, but that is not all there is to life. Hasn't it always been that way since the beginning of time - people have to work, often hard, to make a living and survive? I get the feeling that these anit-coporate types think they have some better enlightened answer to it all but I'll be damned if I can figure it out, other than that they want a complete revolution and forced redistribution of the "wealth." Anyone who thinks and champions that is a total nihilist, wanting to destroy many to satisfy some ideal of what *they* want reality to be. Revolution and redistribution has already been tried before in the past 80 years and its fruit has been the death, slaughter and deprivation of tens of millions of human beings. It doesn't have a good track record. I've read some that some think it can finally work here in the U.S. because there is so much wealth and resources to pick off. I think that it an extremely dangerous illusion. Or is it just a radical posture to keep certain sectors of the society on their toes and I'm being too alarmed by it all? I got over not having a lot of money and every material thing I desired long ago, like in my early 20s. Life is much more than having resentment against what someone else has and life is way to short to be obsessed with "getting my fair share." Kakki
