-Caveat Lector-
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 26 Nov 2000 09:56:00 -0800
From: Bureau of Public Secrets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Bureau of Public Secrets <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The Poverty of Electoral Politics
[Just to put the current election hoopla in perspective. . .]
Roughly speaking we can distinguish five degrees of �government�:
(1) Unrestricted freedom
(2) Direct democracy
(3) Delegate democracy
(4) Representative democracy
(5) Overt minority dictatorship
The present society oscillates between (4) and (5), i.e. between
overt minority rule and covert minority rule camouflaged by a
facade of token democracy. A liberated society would eliminate
(4) and (5) and would progressively reduce the need for (2) and
(3). . . .
In representative democracy people abdicate their power to
elected officials. The candidates� stated policies are limited to
a few vague generalities, and once they are elected there is
little control over their actual decisions on hundreds of issues
-- apart from the feeble threat of changing one�s vote, a few
years later, to some equally uncontrollable rival politician.
Representatives are dependent on the wealthy for bribes and
campaign contributions; they are subordinate to the owners of the
mass media, who decide which issues get the publicity; and they
are almost as ignorant and powerless as the general public
regarding many important matters that are determined by unelected
bureaucrats and independent secret agencies. Overt dictators may
sometimes be overthrown, but the real rulers in �democratic�
regimes, the tiny minority who own or control virtually
everything, are never voted in and never voted out. Most people
don�t even know who they are. . . .
In itself, voting is of no great significance one way or the
other (those who make a big deal about refusing to vote are only
revealing their own fetishism). The problem is that it tends to
lull people into relying on others to act for them, distracting
them from more significant possibilities. A few people who take
some creative initiative (think of the first civil rights
sit-ins) may ultimately have a far greater effect than if they
had put their energy into campaigning for lesser-evil
politicians. At best, legislators rarely do more than what they
have been forced to do by popular movements. A conservative
regime under pressure from independent radical movements often
concedes more than a liberal regime that knows it can count on
radical support. If people invariably rally to lesser evils, all
the rulers have to do in any situation that threatens their power
is to conjure up a threat of some greater evil.
Even in the rare case when a �radical� politician has a realistic
chance of winning an election, all the tedious campaign efforts
of thousands of people may go down the drain in one day because
of some trivial scandal discovered in his personal life, or
because he inadvertently says something intelligent. If he
manages to avoid these pitfalls and it looks like he might win,
he tends to evade controversial issues for fear of antagonizing
swing voters. If he actually gets elected he is almost never in a
position to implement the reforms he has promised, except perhaps
after years of wheeling and dealing with his new colleagues;
which gives him a good excuse to see his first priority as making
whatever compromises are necessary to keep himself in office
indefinitely. Hobnobbing with the rich and powerful, he develops
new interests and new tastes, which he justifies by telling
himself that he deserves a few perks after all his years of
working for good causes. Worst of all, if he does eventually
manage to get a few �progressive� measures passed, this
exceptional and usually trivial success is held up as evidence of
the value of relying on electoral politics, luring many more
people into wasting their energy on similar campaigns to come.
As one of the May 1968 graffiti put it, �It�s painful to submit
to our bosses; it�s even more stupid to choose them!�
[Excerpts from "The Joy of Revolution." To see the complete text,
which discusses many other issues of radical tactics and goals,
click http://www.slip.net/~knabb/PS/joyrev1.htm.]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Bureau of Public Secrets website, which has received 250,000
page visits during its first two years, features Ken Knabb's
translations from the Situationist International (the notorious
group that helped trigger the May 1968 revolt in France) plus
Knabb's own writings and comics on Wilhelm Reich, Kenneth
Rexroth, Gary Snyder, radical Buddhists, Chinese anarchists, the
Iranian uprising, the Gulf war, etc. The site index --
http://www.slip.net/~knabb/index1.htm -- includes over 2000 name
and topic entries, from anarchism to Zen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS
PO Box 1044, Berkeley CA 94701, USA
http://www.slip.net/~knabb
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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