A Call to Action II: Feedback

I received two comments today to "A Call to Action", which was inspired by an article by Newsweek's Eleanor Clift
, and I thought I would make a blog post out of my response, rather than hiding it away in the comments section.

Firstly, let me just thank both Real Speck and Truth Seeker for their comments. It's so nice to read how others think about things!

Real Speck wrote:

For the most part, K, I like the thinking.

I've always held that that "goddamned piece of paper" is the most powerful revolutionary tool ever created. Far more effective that Mr. Malatov's famous brew.

The seeds of change have been sitting there for 200+ years. So Scalia is wrong; the document is alive. It's just been taking a little nap since we repealed prohibition.

But I differ on the tactics for regime change.

To my mind, focusing energy on getting those guys out is not nearly as important as getting 'our guys' in. Specifically, if 'our guys' are Kerry, Daschle, Hillary, etc., then they flat-out suck!

Our real problem is finding 'our guys' (who are probably mostly gals) and convince them that running for office -- so every two-bit media outlet can put a Beta-cam up their sphincter -- is a good thing for their life.

Are you one? (How's that for a sudden, bold and unexpected question?)

I have the growing suspicion that I might be one, too.

And we should take a page from the Republicans' playbook and start small. Let's get some traction at the state and local level before thinking about the national game.

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Then Truth Seeker responded:

There is no time to start small. Changing teams does not change the status quo, imho. It does not matter which side of the fence any of "our guys" are from, just as long as they value truth and justice and are willing to sacrifice the backing of corporate masters.

And if we eliminated the ability for money to rule government, then maybe, just maybe, we would be able to have a truly representative government.

To me, that is why the "taking a page from the Republicans" will not really change anything, except the faces of our leaders.

I tend to agree with Truth Seeker, in that there really does not seem to be enough time to "start small" at the state and local levels, although I imagine that these levels would be included and affected by any changes. In addition, the government that is doing the most damage to the nation and globally exists at the top, the national level, not at the state and local levels, so that is where the changes must begin. If you have cancer, you don't go in for an appendectomy. The point being, you have to go to the source or location of the disease and give the appropriate treatment. In this case, the main source doing the most damage is at the top, not the bottom. Moreover, the "disease" is at such an advanced stage that extreme "emergency measures" seem to be required, and this means that something needs to be done, and done rather quickly, before the disease that is fascism takes an even stronger foothold and what was merely "creeping" turns the US to into a full-blown dictatorship.

As for being someone who would run for office, I sincerely doubt it. Not unless the miracle being discussed here should come to pass, and a new, innovative system is put into place in which government officials aspire to their posts - not for wealth and power - but to genuinely serve the people and do what is right, honorable, just and best for them. Not unless government ceases to be the haven for war mongers and those whose thirst for wealth and power is insatiable. Not unless "kings become philosophers, or philosophers become kings", and the present system becomes a government that is truly "for the people and by the people". No, I don't think so.

Sure, I think I am of the sort to "serve", and try to do so in whatever way presents itself to me day by day, but as Raphael said to Sir Thomas More in his Utopia, after telling Raphael that he was a "generous and philosophical soul" that would be a great counsellor to any king:

"You are doubly mistaken," said he, "Mr. More, both in your opinion of me and in the judgment you make of things: for as I have not that capacity that you fancy I have, so if I had it, the public would not be one jot the better when I had sacrificed my quiet to it. For most princes apply themselves more to affairs of war than to the useful arts of peace; and in these I neither have any knowledge, nor do I much desire it; they are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms, right or wrong, than on governing well those they possess." [...]

There is more, but the general point is that, in the present system, those who truly want to "do some good" or serve others, cannot do this in the political arena because they simply do not "fit", and their efforts would be for nothing. They generally have to find other ways apart from politics in order to do this.

Like blogging.

Until the system changes.


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