[lbo-talk] Re: what the world needs now

Josh Narins josh at narins.net
Mon Apr 10 08:29:30 PDT 2006



> I meant to ask all the folks who agreed with Chuck that people are
> hopeless: The either vote for one of the two parties and keep eating shit.
> That leaves the minority -- a very tiny one -- not eating shit and not
> buying into the two parties 'shit.'
>
> So, what's the solution if you think that way. Just sit around gumbling.
> Start a small revolution. Anarchist disruption. Retreat to a lifestyle
> enclave working on alternative community building and ignoring the rest as
> best as possible? Unrepentent grumbling about it all with no expectation of
> change? Unrepetent agitprop with the hope that people change or some get a
> clue? Fabianism?

Answer? Local Politics.

Reasons: a. politics still "rules" b. even if there is a revolution,

the likely result,

as with many revolutions,

is that politicians will be in charge,

again. (see Leone's A Fistful of Dynamite) c. starting small is OK d. local politics impacts your own life e. local politics means you meet the people around you f. whom would you rather have running the show than yourself?

I'm pretty lucky in that the Chairs of the two boards I am on are decent people, and there are no permanently insufferable people involved.

More often than not, we all agree, but when we don't, the vote matters, and I get to vote.

I also happen to be reading a book called "Bourgeois Nightmares" about the origin of restricted communities, how they quickly morphed into racist covenants, and I'm only half done. These emerged in the 1890s, and became quite regular by the 1920s.

It is particularly relevant considering that I am on my town's Planning Board.

Speaking of which, we had a massive packet, nine separate requests, for this evening's meeting, and the only _real_ requirement, to be a decent member of a Planning Board, is that you read the material before the meeting. A little start-up cost is involved in getting familiar with the regulations you are enforcing/relaxing. So, I must get to it.



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