Erasmus, FCD
Posts: 6349
Joined: June 2007
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| Quote | | Instead of that, I think I'll work on becoming a teacher, where I can work toward making the system better by educating the next generations. |
wow, lou, that's great. i'm serious. But note that it doesn't have anything to do with voting encouraging the bastards. i think it is hilarious that you find some sort of value in holding your nose and trying to determine which is the least shitty diaper in the bin, as if that did anything but encourage the bastards.
| Quote | | Contrary to the cute little strawman you've built of me, I don't vote with idealist faith that the Democrats are the saviors of the country. |
What is not a strawman is that you have an idealist faith that one of the candidate is more of a savior than the other. the swimming analogy is inadequate for many reasons, but you could salvage it by comparing our situation to prisoners voting for which inmate gets trustee. i don't care who it is, it is all done without my consent. the idea that your vote influences the behavior of the candidate is just silly. voting = praying to a god. how do you know you are voting in the right election? better register to vote in every district.
| Quote | | So far, everything you've said boils down to "the system sucks". I don't think you'll find anyone here arguing against that, Erasmus. The fact that some of us choose to try and do something about that is what separates us. |
Ok the system sucks. what you fail to comprehend, Lou, is that voting is not 'doing something about it'. Further, I am not failing to 'do something about it'. I'm just not participating in a social exercise akin to "American Idol". So it makes you feel like a good citizen, that's just peachy. that's a pretty empty thing at the end of the day, huh?
| Quote | | If on the other hand, your contention is that the protections of the Constitution are not worth keeping, and that the Republic should just be scrapped and allowed to become a theocracy run by the most ignorant and autocratic people in the country, then you and I will simply have to part company on our premises. |
speaking of men of straw... i don't know if you noticed but all of these zeroes make strong testaments about their 'faith'. sounds like you can't get a candidate that does share your premises. that's gotta suck.
| Quote | | We can't even include armed rebellion as a last resort option, Erasmus. The reason it worked for the colonists a few centuries back is that they had both popular (not universal, but certainly popular) support and support from abroad, two very critical components to revolution which we are distinctly lacking. |
I don't even consider those as the most important reasons why armed rebellion fails today. yer squirrel guns were fine when you were fighting against other squirrel guns. that's not the case any more. dying for your ideals is a dumb thing to do, and that is surely the result of attempting that sort of resistance.
the problem is not just american imperial hegemony but the imperial hegemony of every other nation. fracture this republic and you will have another, seeded by a foreign power.
the third option is grow your own food, remember how to make white oak baskets, sing old songs, go see yer granmaw, plant on the signs, unplug whenever you can, shoot squirrels, raise chickens and teach these things to children. throw sand in the cogs of the machine every chance you get, but do not sacrifice yourself for your principles.
there is a vast literature on the alternative path but none of it is represented in the mainstream discourse because it does not accept the foundational premise that you are failing to question, namely that we should live this way.
if you do not question this premise then these will not seem to be alternatives but cop-outs. I can lead you to the conclusion but I can't make you accept it. Perhaps returning to the ethical prescription that is a foundation of my philosophy is a start.
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You're obviously illiterate as hell. Peach, bro.-FtK
Finding something hard to believe based on the evidence, is science.-JoeG
the odds of getting some loathsome taint are low-- Gordon E Mullings Manjack Heights Montserrat
I work on molecular systems with pathway charts and such.-Giggles
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