On Wed, 9 Nov 1994, James Roper wrote:
> A world outside the US? C'mon now, Lorraine, you don't expect us to
> believe that do ya?
>
> I think it quite nice that Lorraine was able to do that without ruffling
> my feathers. Sorry Lorraine, but there was this election today, and all
> the bad guys won almost, so we're a bit preoccupied. But keep reminding
> us all, because once we get started, it is quite easy to think that our
> problems are the world's problems, when it would be more correct to say
> that we (or at least those bad guys that just got elected) are the
> world's problems.
Agreed... Sorry Lorraine. I, for one, have just been immersed in this
political stuff. I do think that this is not entirely irrelavent for the
"rest of the world" though. As I look around the world, I see a marked
increase in reactionary violence against many people -- including
environmentalists in some cases. Certainly there seems to be a backlash
against women and an increase in ethnic conflicts worldwide. Perhaps not
in Australia? I hope not. I would like to think there is some place on
the globe that is not being racked by these negative forces.
Jayne
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Thu Nov 10 04:54:37 MST 1994
Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 06:56:40 -0500 (EST)
From: Jayne S Docherty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sender: Jayne S Docherty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: Jayne S Docherty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Post election distress
To: Annica Young Kronsell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
On Thu, 10 Nov 1994, Annica Young Kronsell wrote:
In response to Brian's comment:
> >DON'T VOTE--it only encourages them.
> >
>
> I can understand that as an anarchist you would
> take this position. I however, would like to point
> out that the electoral system does make a
> difference. I think that proportional electoral
> systems, have this same problem of 'false
> appearances' as you are alluding to, but there is
> at least one important difference. It encourages
> an ideological debate at a rather high political
> level. You can actually have the green party in
> the parliament debating from green ideology and
> exposing the brownness of the right and the social
> democrats. I think it makes people think about
> ideology not in terms of their own specific
> interests but (at times) about society in general
> even expressing utopian visions of society.
> Ofcourse it can also lead to ridgid and
> unquestioned party loyalties.
Annica,
I sure wish we could have this kind of discussion in Congress. We
haven't had that in decades! Which is probably why US voter turnout is
usually so low. But, yes we did have a 70% turnout (of registered voters
-- not all eligible voters) in Virginia and that is very high. I think
it was precisely because the whole thing was very ideological -- but not
in any positive sense... Of course we have the highly uncivilized system
of spending tens of millions of dollars on television advertising which
reduces everything to sound bites.... I assume your system is more civilized?
Jayne
