In a message dated 07/29/2000 4:41:53 AM Mountain Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << but how much of a difference can a small number of voters make? what's the percentage of voters our age turnout at the polls, yet even make a difference in the outcome? >> That's like saying, if only four people turn up for a demonstration, does it make a difference? It certainly does if some or all of them commit civil disobedience. The important thing to keep an eye on is your definition of "make a difference." In response to very large and well-entrenched power structures, sometimes the best thing you can accomplish in your life is being Coyote the Trickster, the fly in the ointment, the turd in the punchbowl, the person who tipped over the card table where everyone was playing a rigged game of Monopoly, so that no one could play Monopoly any more. Our newspaper in Colorado Springs, a very conservative paper, had an excellent editorial criticizing the city council in Philadelphia for trying to pass laws preventing demonstrators at the Republican convention. The editorial said, hey, some people get very annoyed with demonstrators, and lots of times people couldn't saunter down the street to get their latte at Starbuck's when they wanted to, but democracy is messy. Democracy makes things run late and makes things fuck up. The only political system where trains run on time is fascism. So it's OK to think that the highest goal you will reach in your life is being a monkey-wrench in the plans of others. Perhaps that sounds overly-nihilist, but nihilism can be both called-for and ethical at times.... Loring Wirbel Monument, Colo. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
