David's first law of political engagement: The influence of your political movement is inversely proportional to the number of jugglers, digeridoos, friendship bracelets and enormous felt jester hats amongst your membership.
Well, it's like this ... one can't really expect to have one's dramatists, poets, and expressive dancers shoveling coal and mining uranium indefinitely - there are consequences, and far better to have a public demonstration that no one takes seriously, than to face the folding of one's entire political system. ;-)
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On a more serious note: unprecedented numbers of global street protests may have failed to prevent the Iraq war, but have effectively generated the vehicle by which the administration's incompetence is so publically viewed, and have moved it well on the path of political isolation...shockingly quickly, in political terms. Vietnam took a decade for public distrust to build to a change of policy...Iraq is well on its way to halving that time.
The presence of so many activists in my political neck-of-the-woods who believe that 'playing the bongos' carries some meaningful political influence is enough to drive me to tears.
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Dude, I was totally lied to by Iain M Banks
(Anonymous) 2006-03-16 02:10 pm (UTC)(link)H
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Does that mean that the Conservatives are going to hire thousands ofn street entertainers to follow around Labour Party Candidates next election?
Maybe they could win that way?
Or because THEY hired them, do they get effected?
Put simply- the use of mercenary street entertainers- is the victim or the hire person who gets the negative effect?
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Arguably, it was the jester-hatted masses that brought down Communism. :-)
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On a more serious note: unprecedented numbers of global street protests may have failed to prevent the Iraq war, but have effectively generated the vehicle by which the administration's incompetence is so publically viewed, and have moved it well on the path of political isolation...shockingly quickly, in political terms. Vietnam took a decade for public distrust to build to a change of policy...Iraq is well on its way to halving that time.
I concur
Re: I concur
Re: I concur