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• Comment by thomass on September 28th, 2005 at 6:27 pm:

  Yes, well, how surprising. I pay them too. and i think the only way to change something as intrinsic and embedded as this particular facet of state capitalism is, to all quit our jobs at the same time, or somehow convince the government in power to reform. but thats all it will be- a reform.

  dont forget- ALMOST EVERYTHING is taxed. so even if we didnt work, every piece of our lives are still contributing to the OIL WAR MACHINE.

  in order to change the status quo in totally everyway, we’ll have to foster a total and complete revolution within our own communities.

• Comment by classless on September 28th, 2005 at 7:41 pm:

  You ever heard of something called “Wertkritik”?

• Comment by Phil on September 28th, 2005 at 10:24 pm:

  What never ceases to amaze me is that we live in this society with a government that tells us “you’re going to do what we tell you to do”, and still run around talking about how great democracy is.

  I’m pretty sure if more people knew about this, they would be against it too, but no one would do anything, assuming that government doesn’t listen to the voice of one person. It’s utterly tragic, but this is what we’ve been trained to believe. We all think that nothing can be done without a billion dollars in backing, or a military coup.

  On the plus side, the Star Wars program pretty much guarantees that we’ll only have to worry about all these problems on this planet for another generation or so.

• Comment by D-Rock on September 28th, 2005 at 11:56 pm:

  You ever heard of something called “Wertkritik”?

  Nope. And Google came up all German-language. Some kind of left theory?

• Comment by classless on September 29th, 2005 at 4:17 am:

  Yeah, I was wondering if this has already made it to the US. I’d appreciate it. It’s a good tool to stop blaming persons or groups for the abstract condition of the capital relationship. It also reintroduces Marx’ thought of sublating (transcending) capitalism instead of simply abolishing it.

  Unfortunately, this approach has very unpopular consequences as it doesn’t allow easy answers and tends to confuse the traditional good/bad stereotypes.

  You might check out http://cutupgermany.twoday.net to get a hint and some more links.

• Comment by everyoneisdoomed. on September 29th, 2005 at 11:38 am:

  I’m really glad you brought this up… something I’ve been thinking about for a long time is the idea of a “tax strike” or some kind of way to choke off the money flowing to government when they act out of line. When I was living in Ottawa, there was hardly a day that went by when I didn’t think of the sheer amount of tax dollars flowing into and out of the city…

  How would a tax strike happen? Could it happen?

• Comment by flickruby on September 29th, 2005 at 12:43 pm:

  I remember coming across this CD article last year… terrifying stuff.

  Also important to note here is that several of the country’s most progressive unions, be it many of the provincial secondary school teachers’ unions, the CAW, CUPW, CUPE, etc… all of these unions invest their pension funds in many corporations that are far beyond any sort of ethical investment practice.

  The party/union/government line seems to say that the returns on such investments are the only ones that would guarantee the possibility of keeping one’s benefits/pension. Or are they?

• Comment by Kyle on September 29th, 2005 at 3:34 pm:

  I don’t remember exactly where I was (maybe I was in class, maybe I was at a discussion somewhere…), but whoever was speaking said that for revolutionary change to occur, you need to have millions of people in the streets.

  So what can we do (short of forming a commune and moving out into the woods)? Spread the word, I guess, even if burning things down seems (however ironic) like the best method…

  When it comes down to making money the ‘easy’ way, ethics obviously aren’t a concern. Is this as pervasive as it appears, or is it a Western ideal?

• Comment by Danarcho on September 29th, 2005 at 4:43 pm:

  Living in a commune does not sound like such a bad idea…

  Right now my current job is timekeeping/refereeing hockey games for a non-profit hockey league. The government does not take off any money, as they are not allowed. I guess if everyone timekept and reffed…

  We as people do not owe anything to the state. The state is worthless. We don’t need to fight for it, we shouldn’t have to pay for it because so many of its’ interests are vested in the pockets of the wealthy. Infact the state owes us for not overthrowing it or something.

  As for a tax strike or something, I wouldn’t know how to do it since they automatically take cash off the cheques….I guess if you owned a shop you could stop charging tax and not pay the government…normal folk could skip filing for a tax return but that would often lose you money….hmm. Steal?

• Comment by caítlin on September 30th, 2005 at 5:08 am:

  Thinking about every purchase you make is a good idea - sometimes its worth it, sometimes its not.
  Stuff that happens automatically and that’s unavoidable is more complicated. If you can get enough anti-war/anti-shithead Canadian people involved, you could fight this, but its hard.
  Its not the same thing, but they’re introducing a form of double-taxation for water over here with huge implications on the average family, but trying to build a movement against it (like the poll tax campaign) is feckin’ difficult.

• Comment by xFirecrackerx on September 30th, 2005 at 6:28 pm:

  This is really fucked up. It reminds me of the movie “The Corporation.” Anyone seen it? It talks about how corporations are legally bound to maximize profits. Ethical concerns are pretty much irrelevant. Only consumer pressure will change business practices. If profits are lost through boycotts, only then will ethics (or at least the appearance of ethics) matter.

  Anyway, it says Canada owns 2,908 shares of Exxon. Quite possibly the most corrupt company ever. They took in $25 billion in profits last year.

  Help out with the campaign against Exxon:
  http://www.exxposeexxon.com

• Comment by Marc on October 1st, 2005 at 9:23 am:

  What’s keeping people from getting hopelessly depressed when even their tax dollars are fueling something seemingly impossible to fight in the first place? That wasn’t rhetorical; Where’s the(your) motivation to fight when you keep getting pissed on and democratically subdued?

• Comment by ian on October 1st, 2005 at 7:50 pm:

  Checking the list of CPP equity investments really puts the shit in perspective:

  HALLIBURTON CO 8,842
  GENERAL ELEC CO 323,315
  LOCKHEED MARTIN 5,489
  SONY CORP 2,598
  SHELL TRNSPRT 106,830
  NEWS CORP 5,906
  NIKE 4,842
  BEDBATH&BEYOND 1

  Although I’d fault these corporations before I’d fault the Canadian pension squad for just trying to make the elderly more money.

  But hey, you’ve got a dollar in Bed Bath and Beyond.

• Comment by caítlin on October 2nd, 2005 at 4:53 am:

  Motivation to fight.. thats a really hard question. I guess you have to allow yourself to be overwhelmed, but keep going. Its swimming against the current for sure, but if you’re moving, you’re moving. What a terrible metaphor. I mean, allow yourself to have fun in between your activisms - better to live 20years as a happy(happier) activist who does what they can than two months as a miserable zealot who resents what s/he’s trying to help. Try and make it sustainable, do as much as you can without pushing yourself so hard you’re gonna quit.
  There are times, in your own life and in history, that will give you a boost when you need it. Look at the White Rose, for example. Not a cheery story but fucking inspiring nonetheless.
  I think the more you understand, the more you want to change things, so read as much as you can - not just the bad stuff, but the histories of people who are changing them, the methodologies you follow or change etc. Try and find like-minded people, too.
  I definitely don’thave the answers, but different things work for different people.

• Comment by Marc on October 2nd, 2005 at 6:10 pm:

  Well, when the more I learn the less I’m inclined to feel that change is possible. I don’t understand how people can keep swallowing shit but still have the motivation to fight. I just don’t see how that works. At my University I see people all the time trying to hand out radical literature (some complete fucked up bullshit, others not so much) but the point being that I don’t understand what keeps these people firm in their resolution to stand on the side of the street fanning people with papers that they refuse to even glance at. I don’t know.

• Comment by caítlin on October 3rd, 2005 at 3:07 am:

  Shit, I used to haaaaaate leafleting. I don’t do it anymore. Some things just wont work for you. Thats a side note… this is just my two pennies but…
  I reckon the argument that it might not get the result we want shouldn’t put us off. I mean, it isnt all or nothing. I’m not expecting there to be some fabulous revolution tomorrow when the world will suddenly be fine.. there is always gonna be work, y’know? But the argument that people are remaining oblivious is the argument for more activism, not less.
  Its really hard to motivate yourself sometimes - i think finding other activists on the same wavelength is very important. And give yourself a break too. Its not all up to you.

  We’re not going to do everything, and we’re not going to help everyone, no matter how much we want to… that used to kill me so much, because I absolutely hate the idea that we have to “discern” or whatever, but I think its better to do what you can, for the people you can, than to let that cripple you and in result not help anyone.
  Its definitely important to look out for positive stories too. Check out the zapatistas, for eg. Find some decent stuff happening where you are to inspire you, maybe even get involved with. Like, I never knew there was a collective in Belfast until I went looking for it, and that gave me a real boost.
  There are times when you’ll read something and you’ll have new resolve to react against it, and there are times when the vastness of it will overwhelm you. I think EVERYONE is like that, I really do. Either that or I’m really weak ;)
  Just remember its ok to wobble as much as you need to, but try your hardest not to fall over (awww). Even really small things, like not drinking Coke (they murder people trying to unionise), not wearing sweatshop-made clothing, (obvious reasons) not contributing to animal exploitation, etc etc, are worth doing and I believe they make some difference. You just need to find your niche, I think.

• Comment by Hairy on October 3rd, 2005 at 3:02 pm:

  I’m new here, so hi.

  Activism does change things. While the change might be impossible to notice day to day, looking over history you can see its effect. An example Chomsky uses quite a lot is that Kennedy was able to do things like invading Cuba and Vietnam with minimal public oppostion. Now governments find it virtually impossible to conduct large scale acts of aggression like these without huge public opposition (Iraq). Generally now the US et al. are having to force their interests through covert actions (aka state terrorism) or economically. If we keep plugging away, keep organising and being active its not stupid to think that in 40 years time we’ll have made more progress at this kind of level.

• Comment by Marc on October 3rd, 2005 at 8:23 pm:

  I think in recent years many people have experienced a cynicism in any sort of resistance, specifically to a powerful authority that constantly opposes your own ideals. It feels like nothing you do, think, or say means jack shit in the great scheme of things. Also, it feels like any sort of “good” is automatically negated with the bad. Someone who is vegan who has a wardrobe constituting sweatshop-made clothes is a hypocrite not someone who is at least doing *something*.

  I remember I was listening to a live Propagandhi recording, and Chris shouts at the end of Nailing Descartes to the Wall, “Go vegan or go fuck yourself.” Are we not expected to be pessimistic when an all-or-nothing standard to resistance is solely legitimate? It’s like, you help someone out, but are you justified in feeling like shit at the end of the day for drinking a Pepsi? There’s a whole lot of ways to make yourself feel guilty and depress yourself.

  Where is the common ground between doing what’s right and feeling good enough to do what’s right?

  (None of this is cohesive, i’m just rambling)

• Comment by caítlin on October 4th, 2005 at 5:12 am:

  I think Hairy is right. They don’t get away with it as easily these days.. but governments have become more sophisticated (poor choice of words)in their ways to counter it. They wont pay attention to the “margins” no matter how big they are, when they’re adament to do something.. unless the margins get a whole lot bigger and more radical, anyway. Theres a james connolly quote about how they yield reforms to delude us that we’ve really got the power… but I digress.

  I dont regard, for example, the Stop The War campaign as a failure - it didn’t go far enough, but I sincerly believe its better than silence, and it has to some degree continued to exert pressure on the governments who supported it. People haven’t stopped - in Shannon in the Irish Republic they’re having a protest very soon at an airbase the US are using to refuel on their way to iraq (thus breaking Irish nuetrality) and it should be BIG.
  I do think that stuff is worthwhile.

  I know exactly what you mean about nothing you feel or say meaning anything to “the grand scheme of things”, but I would argue that it means nothing to the people who never have and i doubt will ever listen. Undoubtedly, the 50 odd less cans of coke a year DO mean something, its a temporary activism before the big stuff can be done. If you avoid the really, really bad guys its definitely a start.

  I guess it comes down to this - do we want our activism to begin and end with the government doing what we say on selected policy issues which we all find go too far, or do we want to really change the whole power structure? For people who just want to be listened to, there arent many positive words I can offer, but for people who want to change the whole thing, who cares if Bush listens to the fact you wont consume like you “should”? Its a proactive choice of yours and it has nothing to do with them, it has to do with the people you’re helping by not wearing sweatshop clothes and by not eating animals etc.

  I wouldn’t say all-or-nothing is solely legitimate. When it comes down to it, yeah, if you don’t give a shit about human rights but you’re a vegan I’m not gonna agree with you and we’re going to have some serious ideological differences, but I’m not going to turn you away from doing something good for the animals because of it, and its REALLY important to let people evolve.. I can’t think of many people who are solely into one form of activism, they’re all so interconnected. For me I think it started with Feminism - if someone had told me way back when that I sucked because I wasn’t a vegan or because I drank Coke I probably would have been alienated. People need time to find their own particular ideas and anaylses.

  I also think your activism has to be by your own rules. If you’re going to demos, writing articles, spreading ideas and being as conscientious a consumer as you’re capable of being at that time, then it’ll only be the lefter-than-thous who attack you for drinking a Pepsi. Don’t let other people project onto you what they think you should be doing. Do it within your own personal boundaries - the rest of us might not agree, but its what you can stick to, and fuck, its your life.

  I maybe sound a bit over-idealistic here but I kind of find it empowering to know what I’m buying (or not), and I don’t chastise myself when I buy something I shouldn’t. Do as much as you can and accept it, or you’ll cripple yourself with guilt for things which are really, really hard to avoid.

  I don’t think I agree about the vegan - sweatshop thing though. Yeah, its hypocritical and I don’t like it, but they *are* doing something, the.. what was it, ninety three?… animals saved each year by one vegetarian is nothing to sniff at, and its all about your own individual progression. I’d rather someone was a vegan and a complete moron in every other sense than just a complete moron.
  (i’ll shutup now, promise).

• Comment by Marc on October 4th, 2005 at 8:16 pm:

  :) I liked the response. Thanks.

• Comment by falcore on October 4th, 2005 at 9:53 pm:

  about the tax thing couldnt you put down the maximum exemptions and then not file a return so when you owe you dont end up paying and the state doesnt recive the projected amout of taxes you will most likely end up in jail however if 1 million people do it then they have lost hunderds of millions of dollars plus dealing with the cost of imprisoning one millon people. its kinda the old thow your body on the gears approach. of course if canada fuctions much like we do here in the south they will join up in a secret terror campain to distroy another small defenceless nation to drive that nations economy into the ground in order to drum up slave labor so the bussniss world can outsource what ever trades or skills needed to continue dominating our lives. but in time mabey 15-20 years if the idea and practice spread then i think the state would stall out and need us then thats the moment we could decide to just what kind of lives we want to live.

• Comment by LJ on October 5th, 2005 at 9:29 am:

  Caitlin you write some excellent responses. This blog makes me want to continue in being socially aware and in activism. Its in realising that there are people like me, being active, that makes me want to continue doing what i do.

  Day by day, i sit and wonder, is anyone actually bothered about these issues. This blog is awesome because it brings different people together to get their views on the issues. awesome.

  Totally agree with what you’ve said further up the page caitlin. Rad. Keep rockin it in Ireland ;)

• Comment by ksup22 on October 5th, 2005 at 11:13 am:

  hi I’m new here to. I have to agree Caitlin you rock! Just a general question, I’m an Aussie and just wondering if you guys and gals or gals and guys or anything inbetween ever hear about our involvment in the War, or tha bali bombings or the opression of our Indigenous peoples? just out of curiousity?

• Comment by caítlin on October 5th, 2005 at 4:04 pm:

  Aww *blush* arent you all just sweethearts? Thats my ego boost for the day! :)

  ksup22, pretty much all I know about Australia is from John Pilger articles.. I think he was the first true indepedent I read. It was his articles about the indigenous i’ve read actually, I need to know more about that. Heroes floored me.

  I havent heard anything whatsoever about the bali bombing though! Google time, methinks. Someone else put it well - I believe another Aussie - when s/he said something along the lines of “over here in ‘lesser of two evils’ Australia”. I’d say our general perception here about the war is; your government is shit, “our”/the UK’s government is shitter, and the American government is the shittest. Your involvement in particular doesn’t feature much at all in our press, in fact I could probably count the number of references on my hand. I know when I’m down south, with their different press, the Brits don’t feature as much either. Its very much seen as “Bush’s war”…

• Comment by ksup22 on October 5th, 2005 at 9:38 pm:

  Yeah what I have read and seen of pilger is pretty good, he also writes for an independent paper here called the ‘Green Left Weekly`(www.greenleft.org.au/) which is heavily influenced by the socialist alliance(good thing for some bad thing for others) but at least it gives a different view than the sugar coated drama show that our mainstream media is. Sadly freedom if it ever exsisted is fading fast in our country, our government is trying to introduce new reforms into the work place that basically destroys Unions and everything they fought for over the last few decades, the fulltime job now becomes a contract job between Employer and employee and the Employer has the right to terminate the employee for no reason if these reforms take place,as well as lowering the minimum wage…….mmm sad. So does Canada and Ireland have similar stories?? Yes Caitlin don’t get a big head, nah jokes get a big head, maybe G7 could introduce a dating service titled “Active Love matching” or not……that was ajoke

• Comment by Joe on October 6th, 2005 at 4:20 pm:

  As to the Canadian side of things in terms of employee/employer relations I’ve heard from some individuals in a local marxist group that this is also going on here and its all being done in the name of (you guessed it) ANTI-TERRORISM!!! Workers (I can’t remember what workplaces..one was dealing with wood products though I believe) are being searched on the way in and out, vehicle searches, and theres also a 1-800 confidential hotline for workers to rat on each other if they are “suspicious”. Aka A free ticket for employers to fire workers on the spot. This kind of activity also makes workers afraid so that they will not want to organize. Sounds a lot like Big Brother to me.

• Comment by caítlin on October 7th, 2005 at 6:19 am:

  Haha, they could call it “left and lovely”. Or maybe thats so bad I’m phyiscally cringing.

  Ksup - Is your media as racist/hysterical/misleading as ours? And I’m really curious to know, is it monopolised so ridiculously over there? I know in America theres the Fox sham etc, but in Canada and Australia?
  Howard sounds as bad as Blair. The situation is fucking bizzare over here, because for so long the Conservatives were in power and they really fucked the unions completely, then labour (who were historically quite left - they had a clause in their manifesto up until ninetyfour (i think) for the nationalisation of industry in Britain) got into power on a landslide victory in 1998 as “new labour” (basically slightly more moderate conservatives, their militant wing were expelled for being socialists, etc) and they’ve continued this fucking ridiculous and draconian system of disempowering unions, privatising education and healthcare to a frightening extent, continually infringing human rights and getting involved in these ridiculous wars. They’re systematically dismantling what was left after the Cons got kicked out, and they call it reform.

  Joe that SUCKS! That sounds absolutely insane, were there no unions there in the first place to stop them? Its so fucking absurd, how far they’re willing to stretch this anti-terrorism excuse…
  Over here, we do this thing where we find the worst companies in the country, or at least the City, and put them on a “league table” of sorts, sometimes set up stalls outside their stores or whatever, and every year one is picked with the lowest wages and worst working conditions and we go and present them with a little plaque for being the biggest fuckhead of the year. Sometimes if you expose them and embarrass them they wise up.

• Comment by ksup22 on October 7th, 2005 at 9:36 pm:

  HAHHAHAHHAHHAHA thats awesome about the Plaque thing! I can see a nice wooden figurine on a plaque with a penis on his head engraved down the bottom ‘Congratulations you are the biggest fuck head of them all for the year` I love it. Yeah our media is pretty bad Murdoch and Packer basically own them all,we have an ABC and an SBS as well,SBS is a multi langual and multi cultural station which is really really kool, they play documentaries like The Corporation, Anti Bush and war doco’s and Michael Moore films among heaps of others,I saw this awesoem one last week about an Australian female journalist who went to Gthe Gaza strip to interview the young men and women there who are fighting for their cause and willing to become a martyr for it. plus movies from all around the world in many languages,so I basically watch that. Then You have Candy or Sugar TV with all your sitcoms and so forth,I watched an episode of ALIAS and decided to time how long the add breaks were during that episode, and for an hour long show it came back with 21 minutes of brainwashing advertising!!. On one station the news reader is an attractive lady(they all are) so they take away the news desk to reveal her legs,then add dramatic music for the news readings, its like a soap opera, I was to busy staring at her legs to even hear what the story was….. thats bad. But yeah our government is rascist, unlike other first world countries we do not have a treaty with our Indigenous people yet, not that other countries really live up to those treaties anyway….or am I wrong? I think Caitlin they are all as bad as each other. I’m still getting over the footage I have seen of teh British Nulcear tests done here in south Australia and the sudden wind change that caused the fall out to head straight into the Aborigine tribes…. ahhh its all depressing, time to go and do my essay on the Bolshevik Revolution….yay. What do all you guys and gals do?

• Comment by caítlin on October 8th, 2005 at 6:38 am:

  The history of Britains involvement in Australia still shocks me.
  Fucking Rupert Murdoch gets everywhere! And robert maxwell did too. That alternative station sounds cool, I wish we had public tv here.
  I know exactly what you mean about the news being like a soap opera, they do that ridiculously corny over-dramatised crap here too :( Its seriously inappropriate, they jump all over something and try to make their station seem the most inticing. Like during the London Bombings, they were falling over themselves to get pictures of the dead and buying people’s mobile phone images off them and stuff. It really disturbs me.

  Do you mean what do we do as activists? I guess it depends on what you count as activism… in the process of organising a benefit gig for Palestine, umm set up an LGBT Youth (who are widely abandoned over here) collective with my ex, I used to be involved with a local political organisation but that didn’t quite work out, and small things like letter writing (I like to bombard the Ann Coulter-type local MP who is called a “feminist” because she’s a woman. I’m never gonna vote for her, but that doesn’t mean I can’t get to her to earn her 40,000 right?) Writing articles is one of my favourite things to do… I think its really important to do stuff that you’ll enjoy, and that you’ll feel some sense of accomplishment with. I used to have to do things I really hated, which was really inter-party housekeeping, and it seeemed so pointless when I could have been writing or learning, you know? What about you? Im curious too! I run out of ideas FAST.

• Comment by ksup22 on October 9th, 2005 at 1:06 am:

  yeah I saw a bit of the BBC and some other british TV footage and yeah they were like vulchers!! excuse all the typos I am hung over from a Suicide Machines show, it was a pretty kool show with only about 30 in the audience,hows that for intimate. I mean’t what does everyone do in general, activism,studying,working,anything. Myself I’m a uni student doing a bachelar of arts, not sure what I want to go into yet maybe environmnetal science, social work etc. I’m doing a fair bit of history,anthropology stuff at the moment with global development and poverty and environmental ethics and values as electives. As for work I was a part qualified chef until I turned vego/vegan( i say both cause I still eat non rennet cheese)and no wteach guitar. Activism well nothing major, I joined a university Greens group but its pretty unorganised,the only other groups here are the socalist alliance which do good things but are like vulchers. Beside sthat I just like to bombard my local mcdonalds with leaflets and draw doodles on there signs……haha not really…ok yes really. wow our like posts are like massive hahaha, if you want send em an email ksup22 [at] yahoo [dot] com anyone else taht wants to say hi can to.

• Comment by Sean on October 14th, 2005 at 6:31 pm:

  Someone posted this list earlier and that is sickening but I do have one question. Bed Bath And Beyond? What makes them on the same page of evilness as Halliburton and lockheed?

  HALLIBURTON CO 8,842
  GENERAL ELEC CO 323,315
  LOCKHEED MARTIN 5,489
  SONY CORP 2,598
  SHELL TRNSPRT 106,830
  NEWS CORP 5,906
  NIKE 4,842
  BEDBATH&BEYOND 1

• Comment by falcore on October 14th, 2005 at 9:56 pm:

  to me; tv is a whole pack of lies to show you a world that u should be living in as determined by those who benneifit from the way that we live with in it like ,revlon sells make-up in the most basic ways with plesant colors and attractive people ,who are only attractive because you are told that they are then a logo and tag line and you might kinda feel good at the end. i think its the repeating of the ads that make their message sink in. and most of the messages seem to be you will feel good if you buy this or eat this or look like this.
  i stopped watching tv about 2 years ago
  well i still down load some tv shows,
  and some times movies but not having the ads and the constant indoctrination from news stations much better.
  now im noticing how many ads are in the newspapers, in the grocery line when i see all the gossip bullshit it seems bizarre taht thease people should mean something to me
  tv sucks just turn it off
  i was wondering if anybody els has ads at movies in thier country?

• Comment by Sean on October 16th, 2005 at 1:41 am:

  Yeah, unfortunatly they have started putting coca cola ads on before movies here in the U.S.A.

• Comment by caítlin on October 16th, 2005 at 9:05 am:

  Standup comedy is one of my vices.

  Yeah, we have lots of adverts, especially for coke, and Guiness, which is odd because cinemas here don’t sell booze.

• Comment by Fat Pat on October 18th, 2005 at 3:33 am:

  “there are actually laws prohibiting the CPP Investment Board from making ethical considerations when choosing investments.”

  WOW. That has gotta go on the list as one of the most blatant inadquecy of government. The government is actually obligated not to make an ethical decision. So not only is the government not protecting us from harmful policy & business practices but it’s also making it illegal to consider the harm. As I said, that has to be the most blatantly warped view of government I’ve ever come in contact with.

  Government exists to serve us right? I mean.. it can fuck up, it can be corrupted, blah, blah, blah.. there’s kinks that need to be worked out. But when the government itself is being built upon an abstainment from consideration of harm done to citizens & their environment - it’s now become inarguably harmful as opposed to even just attempting to serve the citizens and failing.

  There’s a difference between failing to keep citizens from harm and designing government so they CAN NOT be kept from harm. Big difference.

• Comment by falcore on October 21st, 2005 at 12:49 am:

  shouldnt they invest based on the will of the people, isnt that how a democracy works?

• Comment by Stéphane on October 31st, 2005 at 7:05 pm:

  Ha! will of the people! Ah ha! ha! democracy? ha! etc.

  the truth is that so-called domecracies don’t really need the will of the people, they just need submission… nobody really cares enough to do any damage to power, those that do are marginalized…

  i dunno, i’m either a pessimist or an anarchist

• Comment by Ja Mes on November 7th, 2005 at 12:21 pm:

  So what happens to tax evaders in prison? Cause If I don’t pay taxes this year in support of a cessation on my part to funding war I’m more than certain that I will be arrested.

• Comment by Real Intelligent on November 14th, 2005 at 11:18 pm:

  Does anyone older than 20 post here? Nice blog site, kids posting their beliefs based on emotion, not reality. How about that sony playstation kids?????? What tripe……

Dialogue has ended on this post.

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