Saturday, September 24, 2005
Peace march 9-24-05
It’s nice to see the commitment of the many people who are preparing to march today in Washington and those who provide emotional support.
I'd like to point out one thing, however. Katrina says "no system of power ever has built into it any way for anyone to take the power away from those who hold it. Ever." The people who wrote the Constitution did a reasonable job of trying to limit the power that could potentially be amassed by our government. It's only been through our inattention and gullibility that those limits have been eroded and removed.
This crisis we face didn't start in the last five years, and until the critical mass of American citizens recognize ALL the aspects of the power we've slowly surrendered are we really going to make a difference. It's going to be very very difficult for a lot of us to realize that whether it's the ability to make war or the creation of a welfare state, every crumb of that abdicated power accumulates into the travesty that's become visible to almost everyone.
You can say, "well, war is bad" and "taxing people to help those less fortunate is good." Obviously, not all people will agree as to what is "good" or "bad," but what everyone ought to be able to recognize is that the MACHINERY created to make ANY of these things (aside from your own personal value judgments about them) happen means that it's now in place and individual citizens have lost the power. And because we've advanced this far down the road, the people holding the power feel invincible, which is why they're so blatant in exercising it now.
The recent hurricane devastation ought to make it abundantly clear that benevolence can't be legislated. The only thing that will be legislated are those things that will serve the ends of INCREASING the power grab. A lot of us are opposed to war (and likely this one in particular)...but if we don't accept the realization that it's the exact same powerlessness that permits the prosecution of any war without our approval that evolves from our encouragement of the government to play Santa Claus, we're never going to get out of the mess we're in.
We can never ever expect that if we just put our power in the hands of the "right folks" that everything will be peachy. We have to take it back...and there are many ways to do it. Hopefully this weekend will be a step in that direction.
My thanks to all who are putting it on the line. ¶ 10:39 AM
It’s nice to see the commitment of the many people who are preparing to march today in Washington and those who provide emotional support.
I'd like to point out one thing, however. Katrina says "no system of power ever has built into it any way for anyone to take the power away from those who hold it. Ever." The people who wrote the Constitution did a reasonable job of trying to limit the power that could potentially be amassed by our government. It's only been through our inattention and gullibility that those limits have been eroded and removed.
This crisis we face didn't start in the last five years, and until the critical mass of American citizens recognize ALL the aspects of the power we've slowly surrendered are we really going to make a difference. It's going to be very very difficult for a lot of us to realize that whether it's the ability to make war or the creation of a welfare state, every crumb of that abdicated power accumulates into the travesty that's become visible to almost everyone.
You can say, "well, war is bad" and "taxing people to help those less fortunate is good." Obviously, not all people will agree as to what is "good" or "bad," but what everyone ought to be able to recognize is that the MACHINERY created to make ANY of these things (aside from your own personal value judgments about them) happen means that it's now in place and individual citizens have lost the power. And because we've advanced this far down the road, the people holding the power feel invincible, which is why they're so blatant in exercising it now.
The recent hurricane devastation ought to make it abundantly clear that benevolence can't be legislated. The only thing that will be legislated are those things that will serve the ends of INCREASING the power grab. A lot of us are opposed to war (and likely this one in particular)...but if we don't accept the realization that it's the exact same powerlessness that permits the prosecution of any war without our approval that evolves from our encouragement of the government to play Santa Claus, we're never going to get out of the mess we're in.
We can never ever expect that if we just put our power in the hands of the "right folks" that everything will be peachy. We have to take it back...and there are many ways to do it. Hopefully this weekend will be a step in that direction.
My thanks to all who are putting it on the line. ¶ 10:39 AM
