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To thine own self be true.
Originally posted by americandingbat
But maybe that's okay too – because it doesn't have to be contributors vs. non-contributors. We all act in our own sphere, and no matter what, our actions are political whenever they affect our fellow citizens.
Originally posted by Heike
But the PTB says that all of that is wrong. To effect change you VOTE. Change from within by working with the system. What they aren't telling you is that politics and voting aren't going to change a thing. But as long as they can make most of us believe that they do (or can), they can USE them as a way to keep us from doing those other things that they don't want us to do because THOSE things (protesting, revolts, etc.) might actually change things, and change is the last thing THEY want.
Uncle Sam saying "stop complaining and go vote like a good citizen." equates pretty much in my mind to the Wizard of Oz saying "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."
Voting is the pacifier that keeps us from screaming our heads off because we're hungry. Politics is the funny play that distracts us from being concerned about people who are suffering and dying. This illusion of participation, of "our voice being heard" is what THEY are using to channel our frustration, disappointment, anger, and pain so that we won't collectively revolt and DEMAND real change.
"We live in a democracy so we have no one to blame but ourselves for the way things are." Heard that before? That's the guilt trip they're laying on us, and they play it as well as dear old Mom ever did. They aren't doing anything to us, we're doing it to ourselves. Never mind that the US isn't a democracy and never has been, and "government by the people and for the people" died before you were born.
end of quote
I figured the above was worth repeating. Voting IS an illusion since we all found out the hard way that the popular vote does not choose the president (Remember Al Gore?). We also found out the hard way that our voices fall on deaf ears in congress since the people there that we vote in do not have to vote the way we tell them to vote (the bailouts? the raises for the politicians? budgets? education? taxes? I could go on). We are told that our only recourse is to vote the congressman out in the next election. BTW, the U.S. is a REPUBLIC, just like Russia was a REPUBLIC the only difference was the meaningless word that came first.
Credit has been the illusion of prosperity in OZ and now that the curtain has been removed, do you think anyone is going to notice the little man with the big microphone?
Most people are intelligent so why do they allow all of this corrupt government and business? I have been studying the Indigenous cultures of the world (what's left of them) and most never had a government yet the cultures survived and the crime rates were next to nil. Granted, those cultures do not have all the fancy gadgets we take for granted, but they don't have to work 50-80 hours a week either. Is it just our greed for material possessions that make us think we need government to protect our property from others? Why do we need a government?
[edit on 10-12-2008 by peggy m]