leadership with a use-by date...
I'm not disgusted with freedom and democracy. I'm disgusted with the people of free and democratic countries as they sleepwalk their way towards fascism and a trashed planet.
SWMBO thinks a limited number of terms of office for leaders is a great thing to prevent criminals like George Bush and the NeoCons from hijacking the people. I disagreed with her.
The concept is flawed. It is a lazy concept. It throws the good leaders out with the bad. At a time when good leaders are as scarce as hen's teeth, if we did actually manage to find one, we'd have to throw him or her out after (say) two terms. It's leadership with a use-by date. It's crap.
And why? Because we don't trust voters or the democratic process. Maybe that's a part of it. But I think it's primarily because we're trying to abrogate our responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.
We won't hit the streets in large numbers, and stay there till the problem is fixed, if we see our leadership do some really really wrong thing. We won't vote with our feet.
Ultimately, we're afraid to be hurt or killed by the stormtroopers. Would such people even deserve to retain their freedom and democracy?
Take the Iraq war for instance. If all of the people who were seriously opposed to the war (over a hundred million in the US, and over five million here in Oz) all started moving (nonviolently) towards their respective national capitals, staging peaceful rallies in the cities along the way, there would have been no war. Bush and Howard would have backed down long before the building crescendo of peaceful people power gridlocked their capitals, causing their corrupt regimes to topple.
Democracy is all about peaceful people power. Use it, or loose it. And make no mistake about it... It has a use-by date...
SWMBO thinks a limited number of terms of office for leaders is a great thing to prevent criminals like George Bush and the NeoCons from hijacking the people. I disagreed with her.
The concept is flawed. It is a lazy concept. It throws the good leaders out with the bad. At a time when good leaders are as scarce as hen's teeth, if we did actually manage to find one, we'd have to throw him or her out after (say) two terms. It's leadership with a use-by date. It's crap.
And why? Because we don't trust voters or the democratic process. Maybe that's a part of it. But I think it's primarily because we're trying to abrogate our responsibilities as citizens of a democracy.
We won't hit the streets in large numbers, and stay there till the problem is fixed, if we see our leadership do some really really wrong thing. We won't vote with our feet.
Ultimately, we're afraid to be hurt or killed by the stormtroopers. Would such people even deserve to retain their freedom and democracy?
Take the Iraq war for instance. If all of the people who were seriously opposed to the war (over a hundred million in the US, and over five million here in Oz) all started moving (nonviolently) towards their respective national capitals, staging peaceful rallies in the cities along the way, there would have been no war. Bush and Howard would have backed down long before the building crescendo of peaceful people power gridlocked their capitals, causing their corrupt regimes to topple.
Democracy is all about peaceful people power. Use it, or loose it. And make no mistake about it... It has a use-by date...
posted by The Editor at
8:47 AM
3 Comments:
.. and while we're at it, can someone Pleeeeeese agitate for fixed term political periods in Australia?
The agony of waiting for whiffleguts to come up with a "magic" solution for his Baaaaaad polls is effin stupid.
(just a minor correction to syntax, sorry)
hey, Gerry, I 'm not dead yet.
I found somebody else who thinks like you about non-violence.
http://agonist.org/lj/20071025/violent_radicalization_and_homegrown_terrorism_prevention_act_of_2007#comment-134119
its just so damn hard for most mortals to be that strong. That may be part of the illness with "the people of free and democratic countries [that] sleepwalk their way towards fascism and a trashed planet
Davo said "can someone Pleeeeeese agitate for fixed term political periods in Australia?"
Off you go, Davo, start agitating. Start with your blog. Write to Get Up, etc etc. Why are you waiting for someone ELSE to do it? what prt of "in a democracy it it' up to YOU" don't you seem to understand?
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
GreenSmile, glad to read that you're not dead. This blog needs all the contributors it can get. :-)
Thanks for directimg me to that comment. Reassuring to know that there are a few on this planet who understand the utterly devastating power of peaceful people power.
The CIA knows... they fostered it and funded it in Milosevic's Yugoslavia, and in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.
Seems America CAN wage peace... But only when it suits the capitalist agenda...
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