disinterested science

[William S. Lear]

On Thu, July 30, 1998 at 13:20:26 (-0400) Max Sawicky writes:
>>. . . . Politics gets reduced to forced choices between unattractive
>binaries
>
>Politics is always a matter of choices
>beyond one's control.  Otherwise politics
>is reduced to personal expression.

Noam Chomsky characterized this view of democracy as a "system of
ratification", rather than true democracy, in his PBS interview with
Bill Moyers in 1988.  It is true that politics *today* is largely a
matter of choices the formulation of which is largely beyond one's
control; and it is true that we must work both within the set of
available options to select the least harmful, and without to try to
transform the system.

But surely this is not what we should strive for in a definition of
"politics".  Politics should be democratic in the broadest sense,
which means you do have a voice in shaping choices, to the extent that
they affect you, and that power and privilege have minimal (if any)
effect.

Bill