Whilst (a) my attitude to GM is negative more because of the lies and under-the-counter government intrigue which attended its diffusion throughout our countryside and diets (coz I still haven't a clue what the science of it amounts to), and (b) my attitude to the petrol demonstrations is necessarily ambivalent whilst taxes cop all the flak and the oil cartel gets off scot-free (where does that term originate, btw), I do want to congratulate Chris on this post. Good stuff is afoot out there in people land, and every instance of it is well worth mentioning. Somehow, people have decided democracy sometimes requires a little democratic practice - and when that sentiment stalks the land, there might be no end to it. Our world depends so much on a popular acceptance of democracy merely as ideal form, to the exclusion of democracy as social practice in a materially problematic setting for effectively material ends, that we can only guess where all this people-power stuff could take us ... given the profound institutional legitimacy crisis of our day - it'll be very hard indeed for our betters to appropriate and control it, that's for sure.
Cheers, Rob.
>There is always the possibility of democratic influences on justice under
>the jury system, and it appears that English juries may now not convict GM
>activists. Farmers and the GM industry are in dismay about the crumbling of
>one small aspect of the repressive structure of the state.
>
>This in the same month as the public has overwhelmingly supported blockades
>of petrol depots in disregard of the damage to the environment by use of
>petrol.
>
>The population may be fickle but it is not passive.
>
>Chris Burford
>
>London