How much influence do you have?
On the world!
Well, I suppose that it is important to establish what that means in the first place since everyone seems to have a different idea of what 'the world' really is. Mine is probably very different from the normal.
What I would assume would be 'normal' is to define "the world" something along the lines of 'what people do. the memes and temes and jemes that we have created which do more to govern us than we do to govern them. Government and Business, as the dominant power-structures from the north'
I usually think of the world as also including the entire biosphere, the atmosphere, the lithosphere, et cetera. In this case, you, alone, don't do hardly anything to influence the whole being. The atmosphere a little, the lithosphere a little less, the biosphere a little more, and the homosphere ('peoplesphere')...
Well, that's your choice (somewhat - never take anything as an absolute!)
I vote everyday. Today I listened to people bitch about our representative democracy system. And while I kinda think that it's less and less productive (especially in this computer age - we can calculate to such a degree that we could all vote on every issue and all have an equal voice) but we don't just have a say in whose elected. In fact, I don't think that's the best way to affect our democracy. Since we only have two parties, they can both get away with pretty much whatever they want. How are to to "hold them accountable" (as some of them will even ask us to do - facetiously, really) when there's only one other option that people consider?
"Oh God! Obama screwed up on that whole Guantanamo Bay thing! I don't think I can vote for him next term!
"Oh wait... The Republicans are putting up Bobby Jindall and Joe Mengele... Well, I can't vote for them. Obama it is!" (If your a republican, just switch the names up a bit, the premise is the same.)
I vote every single day: I join a new movement almost every day, I sign about an hour or two worth of petitions a day, I write these blog-posts that no one reads every day, donate what little sums of money I have, and consciously vote with my dollar every time I buy something. Ironically, though they are Fundamentally Incompatible (I'll have more on that someday, but a little right here) capitalism can be a good opportunity for democracy.
Equality is as much of a myth in our society as social mobility, and while a lot of it (a whole lot of it) has to do with how much money you happen to have, it also has a little to do with how much hope you have. Everyone in America votes every time they buy anything from douches to turd sandwiches; some of them realize it, some of them don't. So rich wins. But many people, rich and poor, vote only in presidential elections where you have about 1/90 million say in what is going on. Which is less than your chance of winning everything in Powerball.
It is funny when people say that they only vote in the presidential elections like that excuses them from other elections. The presidential election is the least important. When I vote in my local elections (little Gunnison) I sometimes have as much as 1/500 say in what is happening. I would play Powerball with those odds.
When you lobby, really when you say anything to anybody, you are expressing your power just a little bit more. It is just a little bit, a drop. But if you have ever tried to catch the drip out of a leaking faucet, you can see how quickly those drips'll add up if you keep 'em coming.
I try to vote with every faculty I have: educated purchases, talking to people, lobbying, signing petitions, and writing these pieces (that nobody reads). They all do some damage.
Oh, and actually voting. That does a little too, I guess.
On the world!
Well, I suppose that it is important to establish what that means in the first place since everyone seems to have a different idea of what 'the world' really is. Mine is probably very different from the normal.
What I would assume would be 'normal' is to define "the world" something along the lines of 'what people do. the memes and temes and jemes that we have created which do more to govern us than we do to govern them. Government and Business, as the dominant power-structures from the north'
I usually think of the world as also including the entire biosphere, the atmosphere, the lithosphere, et cetera. In this case, you, alone, don't do hardly anything to influence the whole being. The atmosphere a little, the lithosphere a little less, the biosphere a little more, and the homosphere ('peoplesphere')...
Well, that's your choice (somewhat - never take anything as an absolute!)
I vote everyday. Today I listened to people bitch about our representative democracy system. And while I kinda think that it's less and less productive (especially in this computer age - we can calculate to such a degree that we could all vote on every issue and all have an equal voice) but we don't just have a say in whose elected. In fact, I don't think that's the best way to affect our democracy. Since we only have two parties, they can both get away with pretty much whatever they want. How are to to "hold them accountable" (as some of them will even ask us to do - facetiously, really) when there's only one other option that people consider?
"Oh God! Obama screwed up on that whole Guantanamo Bay thing! I don't think I can vote for him next term!
"Oh wait... The Republicans are putting up Bobby Jindall and Joe Mengele... Well, I can't vote for them. Obama it is!" (If your a republican, just switch the names up a bit, the premise is the same.)
I vote every single day: I join a new movement almost every day, I sign about an hour or two worth of petitions a day, I write these blog-posts that no one reads every day, donate what little sums of money I have, and consciously vote with my dollar every time I buy something. Ironically, though they are Fundamentally Incompatible (I'll have more on that someday, but a little right here) capitalism can be a good opportunity for democracy.
Equality is as much of a myth in our society as social mobility, and while a lot of it (a whole lot of it) has to do with how much money you happen to have, it also has a little to do with how much hope you have. Everyone in America votes every time they buy anything from douches to turd sandwiches; some of them realize it, some of them don't. So rich wins. But many people, rich and poor, vote only in presidential elections where you have about 1/90 million say in what is going on. Which is less than your chance of winning everything in Powerball.
It is funny when people say that they only vote in the presidential elections like that excuses them from other elections. The presidential election is the least important. When I vote in my local elections (little Gunnison) I sometimes have as much as 1/500 say in what is happening. I would play Powerball with those odds.
When you lobby, really when you say anything to anybody, you are expressing your power just a little bit more. It is just a little bit, a drop. But if you have ever tried to catch the drip out of a leaking faucet, you can see how quickly those drips'll add up if you keep 'em coming.
I try to vote with every faculty I have: educated purchases, talking to people, lobbying, signing petitions, and writing these pieces (that nobody reads). They all do some damage.
Oh, and actually voting. That does a little too, I guess.
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