boiling a frog

[bluedevi]

I wasn't really planning to go to a protest on Wednesday. I knew there was something happening at Goldsmiths but I didn't have the details; I thought they might be occupying the library or something. If I'd known what was going to happen I'd have brought food and water and a flask of tea and worn more jumpers. All the jumpers. But whatever was

Comments

[bateleur]

My faith in doing things through the proper channels is dwindling by the minute.

The question, really, is not whether one ought to have faith in the "proper channels" so much as what approaches or mechanisms could theoretically replace them. We apparently had a fair, democratic election in which tens of millions of people voted for "yes, please shaft lots of people and put the money in my pocket". Faced with that situation, I don't really have a plan.

[bluedevi]

Tens of millions, yes, but far from a majority...

[bateleur]

Absolutely, but for me that isn't actually what matters. What matters is the massive resistance to doing anything good. There's so much stuff that's tricky enough to solve with everyone working together... but no, instead we've got a substantial percentage literally pulling the wrong way!

[bluedevi]

This is basically what I'm thinking when I'm being flabbergasted at the Tea Party. A feeling of not even living on the same planet.

[bateleur]

Yes! Exactly!

(They get my facepalm icon... but only because I don't have a worse one!)

[lanfykins]

Yes. Their mental world is so far from mine, there just seems to be no shared basis for communication. And where do you go with that?!

[cardinalsin]

We apparently had a fair, democratic election in which tens of millions of people voted for "yes, please shaft lots of people and put the money in my pocket".

Do you think so? I don't think the current Government's policies were well trailed in the election, either in the formal manifestoes of the winning parties, or in their public utterances, or even in the themes of their campaigns. Indeed arguably many members of the Government pledged to do the opposite of what they're doing. So I don't think it's fair to blame the electorate for this, tempting as it is.

[bateleur]

I'm not tempted. I believe it because I've met these people.

[bluedevi]

What, all of them?

[muppethex]

What they voted for was the fresh faced young well spoken and positive guy(s) over the grumpy old cantankerous defensive guy. Policies were completely irrelevant and hardly mentioned in favour of procedural mud slinging and image conscious posing.

But that's the way visual media works now, nothing of substance.. it's all about personalities and conflict, nothing that can't fit into 15 seconds of video is reportable. I've gotten completely fed up with TV in general these days when even in shows about technology and science they have to bring some kind of spurious competition in let alone go into the more interesting technical details.

[bluedevi]

Ha, yes. Teach the controversy! This is especially annoying with things like evolution and climate science, where they think it has to be 'balanced' and get a second talking head in regardless of how flimsy their argument is.