If you don'€™t trust the politicians, take matters into your own hands

One thing I forgot to mention in the introductory posts to this project is how depressed I am about politics in the United States.

Winston Churchill said that "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all thos other forms that have been tried from time to time." The question is, though, whether we still actually have a working democracy here in the United States.

The film Unreasonable Man, about Ralph Nader, which I saw the other day with my writer friend William Georgiades, discusses how the Democratic party abandoned liberal ideology in the 1970s in order to get a slice of the big business campaign contribution pie that the Republicans already feasted on. The result is that we have two parties, both funded by corporate interests, neither of which will do anything to threaten the size of their war chests (which is why Nader ran for president). Whether you pull the lever for big business party number one or big business party number two, big business still wins.

The conservative Pat Buchanan, in the film, sat there and said--and I was so shocked to hear it coming from his mouth that I wrote it down--€”that democracy in the United States is a "€œfraud, €”it'€™s a consumer fraud." The politician who wins is not the one who is best for the people but the one with the ideology big business is most willing to support.

You start to worry that cleaning up the world will only come when business tells the politicians it'€™s okay, that they've finally figured out a way to rake in money in an environmental way. But I think it will be a long time coming before, for example, business finds a way to profit from reduced resource consumption. And let's face it, one way or another, we're going to have to face up to a reduced consumption scenario. But if big business doesn'€™t embrace it--and why would they?--the political parties won'€™t consider it.

So what options does that leave us schlubs--€”the voters--€”with? Take matters into our own hands. Don'€™t wait until the Government tells us to stop driving gas guzzlers. Just stop driving them. Don't wait until the Government says not to use your air conditioner all the time. Just stop using it.

Waiting for the Government to tell us to save the world is just ludicrous. Let's just save  it.

Comments

[Elizabeth]

Hi, I just found this and I find it so interesting and look forward to reading about your experiment and hopefully learning a few tricks to live more beneficially for the eart. I wanted to share something with you, that a college friend shared with me - America's true form of government is Capitalist - we vote with our money. What you were saying reminded me of that. I'm also teaching my young daughter about that, specifically in regards to the toys we buy - I tell her that if we buy that trashy Bratz doll made by children in China, we are telling that company and other toy companies that the kind of toys that we like are degrading views of women and that we don't mind exploiting other country's children to please this rich child in America. Hopefully she will learn at an earlier age than I did that how she uses her money is how she votes in America and she will use it more wisely.

[dare]

I gave up on the gov't several years ago. They're owned by the corporations, so the gov't doesn't run the show, corporations do. So, we don't have a gov't! DIY (do it yourself) is the mantra i learn to live by. Learning to live on less, and removing the excess. I don't watch TV or buy newspapers, and I have discovered after awhile, I complain less, don't get angry as often, am less fearful, and find I'm a happier person for it. It's a challenge not to get caught up in the hype of "buying more stuff" but it's a challenge worth every effort, So folks, don't give yourself an ulcer over the gov't.