Doin' Stuff

[Jdanz]

Part a)
Does anybody here work in politics?

Does anyone hold elected office?

Interested?

PArt b)

It seems to me as if there is a large anti-government tendancy on this board, for what it's worth, and i'm just wondering if you are anti-government what do you do about it?

[Darryl_P]

a) No to all 3

b) Democracy cannot be defeated within a democracy since there are too many built-in safeguards to prevent that from happening.

One approach could be what the Unabomber did, ie. random violence on various key players in the system. Trouble with that one, though, is that it's too risky and not effective enough.

My approach is to just wait until major economic problems happen and things start to polarize, then join the side which best represents the anti-system side.

Major problems are bound to happen because of the enormous levels of debt at the moment and the huge volumes of unbacked paper currency.

And just it case it doesn't happen while I'm young enough to get involved, I'm raising my kids to understand this stuff in the hope that they will do the same when they're in that situation.

[Jdanz]

so essentially you think a revolution is impmossible until we reach a major crash/catastrophy?

Does anyone know if the Great Depression really catalyized any major libertarianesque stuff? If that didn't do you think the next will?

The three best known capitalist crashes i know of in the modern era would be the potato famine in Ireland, the hyper-inflation in germany, and the great depression everywhere. To the best of my knowledge in each case the public clamored for more government intervention.

Can't say i really know much about the issue, i'd be more then happy to hear any other views. Anybody take a more active approach?

a) At one time I was extremely active in a political party. I worked in campaigns. One area of my business involved consultant work with candidates - challengers and incumbents.

No.

At one time, yes. Today, absolutely not. Under no circumstances. No way.

b) I’m not truly anti-government. Outright revolution and sedition are really bad ideas (although tempting at times). What I do today is Quixotic, I know, but I tilt every friggin’ windmill and windbag I come across. I try, in my own way, to point to the hypocrisy of politicians.

I argue with zealots and ideologues just for the hell of it. Most of them will never change, I know, but what tha hell, I did, so maybe that light at the end of the tunnel is a ray of hope - not another train.

[Darryl_P]

[ QUOTE ]
so essentially you think a revolution is impmossible until we reach a major crash/catastrophy?


[/ QUOTE ]

Yes because I can't see people getting too involved on issues of principle when they're busy working and putting food on the table, all in relative comfort. Any further progress to a utopian state of happiness is just a luxury and I can't see people sacrificing basic needs like security just for those.

If the security was taken away by some other means, though, like via a major depression leading to lawlessness and chaos from the lack of economic infrastructure to support a strong police force, say, then there will be nothing to lose anymore. Then things could get ugly.

I'd say the Great Depression led directly to WW2. Hitler came to power by offering a solution to Germany's economic problems, and he did very well until he got carried away and wanted to take over the world. The US stopped him of course and are now actively policing the world to make sure no more Hitlers come to power anywhere.

This policing takes money, though, lots of it, and when it's not there anymore (in the case of a depression when US citizens will be more concerned with tomorrow's dinner than policing the world) there will be nothing to stop another nation somewhere from adopting a Hitleresque system again. That will naturally anger other nations and WW3 could erupt.

Of course this is just one scenario which you could argue is not terribly likely, but it is not far-fetched either IMO.

[CCass]

No.

Not yet.

I have run for a local office (County Commissioner) before, and will be on the ballot again next year.

I am not anit-government per-se, but our political system has minimized the Constitution in the last ~140 years. Since the Civil War, the federal government has run rampant, and I am afraid that there are no strict Constitutionalists anymore. The federal government has to much power, and spends to much money.

[Jdanz]

i would say that the great depression is amongst the causes of world war II (not really in america, but in europe) however if we are to take america as an example, i can hardly think of a time when people were more enamored with "the state" as such then during and right after WWII. I am really not sure how to interpert that, but i'd like to hear thoughts.

[Darryl_P]

That makes sense seeing as you guys won the war and it was in large part because of your system and the state.

But then time passed and the industrial machine kept on churning away purposelessly and here we are trying to make sense of it all /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[lehighguy]

The economic collapse of the Soviet Union led to a call for less government. Similair in other communist countries.

I think whatever fails, people desire the opposite of it. So if capitalism fails they think communism is the solution and if communism fails they think capitalism is the solution.

There will be no revolution in this country. Just a slow slide into irrelevence. The only way there would ever be a revolution is if we lost a war with China.

[lehighguy]

I worked on a congressional campaign and a NYV councilmens office. On R and one D.

It convinced me not to work in politics.