The Pragmatist

I truly believe in a Christian Anarchist vision (version?) of society where we rely on the smallest possible units/collectives to meet the needs of and build community. However, the pragmatist in me always lurks. Waiting for people of wisdom to hand me a gem for the dragon's treasure hoard. While I may desire and try to model an anarchist community, around me is the semblance of other society (or as Peter Maurin might refer to it, the shell of an old society!) This shell contains the whispers of democracy and the memory of belief in participatory governance. Do I work with it, or don't I?

Here I sit, up too late, over stimulated by the excellent presentation I attended tonight. Where several gems were handed over to the dragon. Discussion of the Security (HA!) and Prosperity (HA!) Partnership (HA HA HA!) agreement was well attended and presented. The particular gem I'm polishing at the moment is this: a philosophy of the "right" in politics is to throw mud at the "left", not to get voters to change sides, but rather to muddy everything so that voters believe all politicians are unclean and convincing them to opt out of the electoral system. So instead of needing 50% plus 1 to win things, they really only need 20% plus 1 and the elite 20% of the population who support them will always vote. This is supported by several examples in Canada where clearly the majority of citizens felt one way on a particular issue and yet managed to elect a government who went the opposite direction from them on the issue.

This rings very true for me. Not enough that I'm going to rush right out and volunteer on anybody's campaign, but you may hear me telling you to get your ass out and vote. Don't be shocked or dismayed. Just think about it, 'k?