I vividly remember a day in May of 1995, when a radio announcer came on and spoke to the women of America directly. He explained that Congress was about to make a 434-1 decision that would have a profound impact on our children, and our rights as parents, and we needed to get on the phone immediately. Well, we shut down the switchboard in DC for two full days. When the vote was finally taken, it totally flipped to 1-434. As the announcer had said, "The most dangerous person in America is a housewife with a telephone."
John: That is a contributor. Another is that our representatives are not acting in the best interest of their constituents — and are instead often catering to lobbyists and other special interests.
Excellent article. I am writing a similar one based around apathy and the problems it causes in our society, and I will link to this one in the 'Solutions' section.
'Concerned Grammy' replied the following to one of my comments yesterday which sparked the idea:
"I worked our city elections in April. Small, rural town. The mayor was unchallenged (3rd term, he's almost invisible) and 2 (out of 4) city council seats. The 2 city council seat challengers did NOTHING, didn't even put out one sign, no FB page - I mean, NOTHING! Everyone was asking ME about the challengers! After 7 days of early voting and 7am-7pm election day, a grand total of 127 people cast a ballot. There are 2,700 registered, eligible voters in this town! There's a large group that constantly b!tch on FB about how "badly" the town is ran, who runs it, how "bad" the police are, etc, etc, etc. I think there's a large link between people "letting off steam" on social media that prevents "in real life" action."
My comment:
"The people hold the power, despite what government at every level desperately wants you to believe. Town councils can do nothing without the apathy of the populace. Fixing our problems, however, requires up-to-the minute civic participation from a critical mass of citizens. You have to be all over the legislators and enforcers, you have to put every single thing they do under a microscope constantly, and you have to remove them if they do not execute the will of the people. From here, you work your way to county, state, and federal levels.
All of our problems stem from apathy. For too long we've sat back, relaxed, and let the government police itself, and by doing so have given the wolves the keys to the hen house while naively expecting - in our blissful ignorance - for the chickens to be in good hands...
Those chickens have been and are being slaughtered, and the time has come for us to put those wolves in prison and to take back what is ours.
The tinpot dictators feed on both your apathy and absence. Show up as much as you can. Show them they are hopelessly outnumbered. Show them you are watching their every move. Immediately call them on every wrong move they take.
The will shrivel under the scrutiny and recognize that if they screw up they will lose that coveted position of power they worked so hard to acquire."
ah, 3 years into this fight... just now have been able to get joint legislative hearings, scheduled for September. Working on this is the reason I haven't been able to make many contributions to my substack. It is tough. It takes inhumane levels of persistence... and I'm working with supermajorities on both sides of the legislature and with all the major office holders supposedly of the right mind. Money talks- and yanks the chains of anyone that gets out of line. Plus, we are in the Fourth Turning, so the mantra is "Keep it Simple." I can tell you from experience that two generations ago- yes, I am that old- that would not be the mantra. Basically, if you can't say it in one tweet, you are saying too much. Can we do that with today's technology, today's science. No one in a position of power will, without lots of work on the relationship, listen to more than a tweet. To me, that is a cop out. I use this quote: "It is chiefly on upon the lay citizen, informed about science, but not a practicioner, that the country must depend [upon] in determining the use to which science is put in resolving the many public policy questions that scientific [and technical] discoveries constantly force upon us. (David Lilienthal) Being in the Fourth Turn, and don't have much hope that our situation will stabilize until the Second Turn. Until then, we will always be on the edge of disaster, and once my generation is gone, the Third Turn has a lot less persistence to carry the load.
I vividly remember a day in May of 1995, when a radio announcer came on and spoke to the women of America directly. He explained that Congress was about to make a 434-1 decision that would have a profound impact on our children, and our rights as parents, and we needed to get on the phone immediately. Well, we shut down the switchboard in DC for two full days. When the vote was finally taken, it totally flipped to 1-434. As the announcer had said, "The most dangerous person in America is a housewife with a telephone."
I'd say that "The most dangerous person in America is an informed, angry housewife."
John Droz reminds us that common sense is uncommon or else we wouldn’t be in this mess.
John: That is a contributor. Another is that our representatives are not acting in the best interest of their constituents — and are instead often catering to lobbyists and other special interests.
Excellent article. I am writing a similar one based around apathy and the problems it causes in our society, and I will link to this one in the 'Solutions' section.
'Concerned Grammy' replied the following to one of my comments yesterday which sparked the idea:
"I worked our city elections in April. Small, rural town. The mayor was unchallenged (3rd term, he's almost invisible) and 2 (out of 4) city council seats. The 2 city council seat challengers did NOTHING, didn't even put out one sign, no FB page - I mean, NOTHING! Everyone was asking ME about the challengers! After 7 days of early voting and 7am-7pm election day, a grand total of 127 people cast a ballot. There are 2,700 registered, eligible voters in this town! There's a large group that constantly b!tch on FB about how "badly" the town is ran, who runs it, how "bad" the police are, etc, etc, etc. I think there's a large link between people "letting off steam" on social media that prevents "in real life" action."
My comment:
"The people hold the power, despite what government at every level desperately wants you to believe. Town councils can do nothing without the apathy of the populace. Fixing our problems, however, requires up-to-the minute civic participation from a critical mass of citizens. You have to be all over the legislators and enforcers, you have to put every single thing they do under a microscope constantly, and you have to remove them if they do not execute the will of the people. From here, you work your way to county, state, and federal levels.
All of our problems stem from apathy. For too long we've sat back, relaxed, and let the government police itself, and by doing so have given the wolves the keys to the hen house while naively expecting - in our blissful ignorance - for the chickens to be in good hands...
Those chickens have been and are being slaughtered, and the time has come for us to put those wolves in prison and to take back what is ours.
The tinpot dictators feed on both your apathy and absence. Show up as much as you can. Show them they are hopelessly outnumbered. Show them you are watching their every move. Immediately call them on every wrong move they take.
The will shrivel under the scrutiny and recognize that if they screw up they will lose that coveted position of power they worked so hard to acquire."
Absolutely! TY for the cross-post.
It is complete: https://tritorch.substack.com/p/apathy-is-the-fire-in-which-we-burn
Thank you1
ah, 3 years into this fight... just now have been able to get joint legislative hearings, scheduled for September. Working on this is the reason I haven't been able to make many contributions to my substack. It is tough. It takes inhumane levels of persistence... and I'm working with supermajorities on both sides of the legislature and with all the major office holders supposedly of the right mind. Money talks- and yanks the chains of anyone that gets out of line. Plus, we are in the Fourth Turning, so the mantra is "Keep it Simple." I can tell you from experience that two generations ago- yes, I am that old- that would not be the mantra. Basically, if you can't say it in one tweet, you are saying too much. Can we do that with today's technology, today's science. No one in a position of power will, without lots of work on the relationship, listen to more than a tweet. To me, that is a cop out. I use this quote: "It is chiefly on upon the lay citizen, informed about science, but not a practicioner, that the country must depend [upon] in determining the use to which science is put in resolving the many public policy questions that scientific [and technical] discoveries constantly force upon us. (David Lilienthal) Being in the Fourth Turn, and don't have much hope that our situation will stabilize until the Second Turn. Until then, we will always be on the edge of disaster, and once my generation is gone, the Third Turn has a lot less persistence to carry the load.