> Psypher said: "I don't do that because I dont acknowledge that
> those people either represent me or my interests. I do not
> acknowledge their right to speak or act on my behalf."
>
> Well GOSH can they act on my behalf?
...no. No person can give up their responsibility to speak their own part in the world. You are a person with facets and aspects and a multitude of phases - you have much to teach the world. As does anyone. The only way we can learn from each other is to communicate directly. No person can give their voice to another, no person may take away the voice of another.
> I vote and I hold a legislator's feet to the fire. You are rejecting
> a system that requires your active participation. You criticize
> democracy for not listening and you dont talk. Your voice is the
> demo in democracy.If you dont participate, you aren't even the Us in
> your Us and Them philosophy.
...there is no us or them, there's onle WE. I participate every day in the formation and maintenance of my community. I consider the ethical implications of my actions and discuss how best to act with my cohort. This does not happen enough - we are not encouraged to discuss the matter. We are encouraged to participate in a system to which we must abnegate our voices in order to maintain our survival. We are expected to allow others to make our decisions for us.
...I am not satisfied with the results. On the whole I would rather speak for myself but I have no way to raise my voice except through the [correct channels]. When I try, argument results - even here we're more interested in 'proving' our positions than listening to what each other has to say.
So all your education and understanding
> are about as valuable as christian prayers. That's if you don't
join
> in the marketplace of ideas with regards to the issues that concern
> you.
...I did my degree trying to learn how people learn, figuring out how
people are pidgeonholed and labeled, how we define and label
ourselves.
...I did 3 years of volunteer youthwork. I watched kids get messed up
on drugs, live on the streets and sift into psyche wards all because
nobody would listen to them, no one would look beyond the way they
saw the world themselves to figure out how it looked from the kids
perspective.
...I spoke about HIV/AIDS to groups of highschool kids because nobody
else was willing to do it - they found it uncomfortable, they didn't
like the subject matter, anything so they didn't have to.
...and I did it well and you can be damn sure I went in there with
piercings and a shaved head, wearing a shirt that said OBEY ME with
my arms covered in tattoos wielding a black latex dildo. And it
didn't distance me from them, and it doesn't distance me from people
now. It does generally convince people that I'm damn serious about
something and they should maybe pay a little bit of attention for a
second.
...when they do, I ask them to teach me - and every one of them does.
...democracy isn't theory,or bureaucracy, or process it's life.
...but people would rather deal with the legislators and suggest all manner of reform. People would rather be told what to do than take some action right around themselves - wait for the damn vote every 3 or 4 years and wash your hands of everything in between. "I'm sure they know what they're doing, they represent the people after all."
> There is something amiss here. You can go along for quite awhile
> concerning the "evils" of competition and hierarchies. What about
> the cooperation aspect? They go together. If you wont cooperate
with
> such a user friendly system, you're copping out.
...user friendly to those in the system. Extremely hostile to those who don't.
You are rejecting
> your own power. The very power you have that you say you dont have.
> They do represent you. Reality check.
...no. They do not. They speak and claim that they speak with my tongue but they do not. They act and claim they act in my name, but they do not. I do not abnegate one iota of my mind to them, I do not abnegate one iota of my responsibility to them. My voice is my voice and I act the best I can with all of my being every day. In the world immediately around me.
>Change the meds....... jim
...and so you too dismiss, rather than attempting to teach.
-psypher