[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > on and on and on. i think that is what colin meant. and debra. (if i > may be so bold.)
Yes, Ric, that is what I had in mind. Thanks very much for giving such clear examples. And as Yael mentioned in another message, even if there's not a conscious political motive behind our actions, there are always political consequences. It's hard to see them and especially hard to take responsibility for them when looking at just one person's actions. An one example, it's not one steak dinner that's a problem (although some people would say it is healthwise), but when millions of people are eating beef and don't want to pay much for it, then the result is that cattle in the U.S. are raised as cheaply as possible, which means inefficiently, even though one of the consequences of that is depleting the water table under the Midwest, a resource that can never be replaced. (How can that be explained to people 200 years from now?) It's also hard to see the connection between one's actions and the political consequences since the issues are so complex that it's not always possible to know what horror an action is "supporting". It's no longer just the cheap clothes that are made in sweatshops. When I think of "political" I think of it as the community as a whole and how I relate to it, not just a political party, and my actions (steak for dinner every night?) reflect that. When it comes to voting, my hope is always that the political party I choose to vote for will extend to the community (the country, the world, the future) the values I consider important. But it never works so neatly. The compromises of politics and the majority rule on every issue take over and the results are never as clear as the ideals are. It's still better I think to start from those ideals and go from there... There are so many messages I'd like to respond to, but just don't have the time today. One last thing... guilt? I don't know that anyone's aiming to produce that. Awareness, though, is something to aim for I think. What one does with that... well, there's a thousand possibilities for that one. That's where politics is very personal. Gotta go, (and I'm hoping this rushed message makes sense), oops, really gotta go, Debra Shea
