break the system

[lsi <lsi@lsi.clara.net>]

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http://www.vandra.clara.net/opinions/breaksys.htm

<p>Governments have no place making laws, choosing directions 
and being arbitrary.  This is the tail leading the donkey - people are 
what matters, government is a way of getting things done but they 
are not authorised to choose, and were never authorised to choose. 
 Government is implementor, co-ordinator and faciliator, but never 
dictator.  The government exists for the people, of the people and 
by the people.  That means that if the people can choose, the 
government butts out and makes it happen as it is told to make it 
happen.  Who says people don't know best?  Doesn't the street 
always yield the best gems?

<p>Government's excuse for being arbitrary and paternalistic has 
been that the people are uninformed and generally not in a position 
to make a decision.  The solution to this problem is not to take 
their power from them (as the so-called democracies of today do) 
but to empower them to use it wisely.  This empowerment can only 
come from continuing education, from freely flowing information and 
from feedback processes. People must be able to choose and see 
the consequences of their choice. Next time they face a similar 
situation they can apply their experience and make a better 
choice.  With time, people will acquire the ability to make the 
decisions government says they can't.

<p>Of course, nothing's going to happen if the informed voice of the 
people cannot be heard.  Perhaps once the media used to be a 
good tool for that, but time has seen the media evolve into the 
powerful, manipulative monster that it once reported upon.  Indeed, 
the media is now little more than a mouthpiece for trumpeting the 
virtues of the owner's mega-corporation, while trumpeting the vices 
of everyone else's.  It's not too late for people though: technology 
like the internet has evolved to provide a voice.  That is if we can 
keep the government away from it.

<p>Technology has always been the voice of the people.  People 
can exploit each other by possessing tools (information and 
technology) that others don't.  Indeed, as soon as people could 
speak there has been power. When people could travel (with the 
wheel, and the exploitation of animals) this power spread.  When 
the spoken word could be recorded, this power spread further.  As 
the ability of people to speak and travel and read and write has 
grown, this power has dissolved from the concentrated, exploitative 
world of the patriarchy (typified by punishment, religion, intervention 
and the mass media) into the hands of everyday people.

<p>Back to the government, and we see how those in power have 
traditionally suppressed this process of dissolution by interfering in 
education, licensing transport and controlling information.  Not too 
pretty is it? Surely those fat cats weren't getting rich by accident?  
The debate about power corrupting is moot: power IS corruption, it 
is influence that is intended for people and diverted and 
accumulated by the patriarchy.

<p>But anyway, this patriarchy is doomed, as the process of 
dissolution is inevitable.  Best of all, it's nearly complete.  People 
everywhere are speaking out about whatever they want.  Lobby 
groups abound.  Nasty people are getting voted out or are dead.  
Time is passing, and people are learning.

<p>Change is increasingly with us, and there's nothing anyone can 
do about it.  What can be done, though, is to give change a 
chance.  It can be resisted, tolerated or embraced.  Resistance is 
useless.  Tolerance will do, but it is only with the embracing of 
change that the opportunities afforded by change can be best built 
upon.  Run with it.  Contribute to it.  Depend on it.

<p>So what I'm saying is take a stand, get out there and make it 
happen. DON'T LISTEN to those nasty people selling books, guns 
and licenses.  TAKE THE POWER that is available to all of us 
through our ability to communicate AND USE IT to bring about 
change that will make life better for future generations.

<p>You might notice that you come to trust and respect other 
people a little more once you hear them talk.  This is what has 
been suppressed so long: people have been prevented from co-
operating, by authority itself -- which knows that to divide is to 
conquer.

Stuart
(mid-1999)
------------------------------
. ^               Stuart Udall
.~X\     stuart@cyberdelix.net
.~ \    http://cyberdelix.net/

..revolution through evolution


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