[lit-ideas] Re: Participatory democracy

  • From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, cblists@xxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2008 19:40:28 -0230

As my vacationing mind wanders hitherto and fro - not at all like "wafting," I
hurriedly emphasize -  I am reminded of some of my more famous political
predictions. "Famous" in that people won't let me forget them.

1. George W will never become president of any democratic country.

2. Al Gore will become president of the US (and not only because he knows what
"affirmative action" means and George W don't.)

3. George W will never be re-eletced president of the US.

4. Pierre Trudeau will return from his walk in the storm having decided not to
resign.

5. Stephem Harper will not become PM, on a minority government or any other
kind of government.

6. Joe Clark will never become PM of Canada. (Actually, depending on the
accuracvy of your timepiece, that prediction may well display some
truth-value.

7. The Soviet state, like the berlin Wall, will continue to stand mightily
until
the mid-90s.

8. There will never be a cabinet member in the Canadian government who believes
the earth is 30, 000 years old.

9. No Premier of a Canadian province will ever knowingly interfere in the
internal autonomy of a university. ("Knowingly" since ome of them aren't
particularly bright.)

10. Walter Putin will leave politics at the end of his term as President.

11. No Ayatollah will ever acquire significant political power in Iran.

12. Only about 30% of Quebec will ever vote for a separatist or sovereigntist
governement

13. Pierre Trudeau will not proceed with patriation of the Constitution without
Quebec onside.

14. Misha Gorbachov is not a political animal.

15. William Bennett will never publish a book on moral education (please, god.)

16. Americans will soon grow out of using the terms "political left" and
"political right" because they will come to understand that the terms have been
rendered useless and obsolete some time ago now due to semantic abuse - like
"paradigm," "postmodernism," and "attention deficit disorder." And anyway, they
were always mirror images of each other in the first place.

17. No professional Plato scholar will ever write a best seller on education
and
popular culture.

18. Canada will extend its medicare services to American citizens as well as
its
illegal aliens but only if the American governement gives us Washington state,
Virginia, the city of San Antonio, the Lincoln Mall in Miami Beach, the Grand
Canyon, the Hoover Dam, the city of Boston, Cape
Cod and Sarah Palin. (We too are now in the throes of an election and our
liberal leader - no, not Misha Ignatieff, don't ask me why - desperately
requires .... well, how to put this delicately .... ah yes, a community
organizer.)

19. In 1976: Mao will be China's leader at least until the end of the 80s.

20. Israel will accept the Palestinian demand for a "right to return" by the
mid-90s.

21. There will always be enough cod in the waters of Newfoundland for us and
all
the gouging foreigners that trespass against us upon our waters. 

22. Osama Bin Laden will be found living on an estate in North Fort Lauderdale.
(Take state road 84 from the A1A to Hiatus and make a left. But stop over at
Lester's Diner for a nice lunch and rice pudding.)

23. Because of the influence of the Orthodox church on the lives and minds of
Serbs, Muslims will be accepted as fellow-citizens within a greater Yugoslavia.


24. Margaret Thatcher will have no salient effect on the principle of tenure
and
academic freedom at UK universities. 

25. All references to god in the Canadian Charter and the American Constitution
will be deleted by the mid-90s.

26. No member of the Beatles, living or deceased, will speak against the seal
hunt in Newfoundland. (Or mistake Newfoundland for Nova Scotia.)

27. Ben's deli in Montreal will never close. (OK, so it may not really be a
political matter, but I really do miss the place on my visits to my original
hometown. Leonard still cries at the very mention of the name "Ben.")

28. Israel will proclaim Jerusalem (all of it) as its rightful capital city by
2011. (As a "prediction," I realize this is somewhat anachronistic.  But wait
for it ... and worry.)

There's more, of course, but there's some good tennis coming up. Go Roger! But
one more question before I leave.

And this on an an entirely different topic. This past April, I was at a
conference in Cambridge, Mass.. I spent a considerable amount of time before
and during the conference at a number of pubs and restaurants at Harvard
Square. On the first day of my meanderings, it struck me that a large number of
the people at these pubs and restaurants would, by conventional standards, be
deemed either "quite physically attractive" or "very physically attractive."
(Remember, I'm a Montreal native and thus know quite well of which I speak.) 

My question: How is it that physical attractiveness is over-represented in my
population sample at Harvard Square? Are there sociological or anthropological
principles at play here of which I am innocent? Could it be that your chances
of getting into Harvard are ameliorated by certain physical features? 

Clearly, I don't wish to be portrayed as a physical reductionist here. The
feature of "attractiveness" of the people I refer to includes, of course, their
overall personality ambience, the gait of their walk, their personal carriage,
their personal sense of self, how they cut their steak, their overall demeanour
in public display, etc.. Anybody who has spent any time at Harvard understands.
(Or in Oxbridge for that matter.) Do let us know what you think.

In holidaying tranquility,

Walter O.



Quoting cblists@xxxxxxxx:

> 
> On 8-Sep-08, at 7:31 AM, Lawrence Helm wrote:
> 
> > Hey wait a minute.  More than 50% of our country voted for Gore in  
> > 2000 . .
> > . Heck.  You guys are always so danged ambiguous.
> >
> > Lawrence
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:  Paul Stone
> > Sent: Sunday, September 07, 2008 10:13 PM
> >
> > Don't worry Lawrence... Obama will NOT be elected for three reasons:
> >
> > 1) he's black
> > 2) he's got a 'crazy' name
> > 3) more than 50% of your country are fucking idiots.
> 
> One of the things that concerns me most about elections in the US is  
> low voter turnout.  When was the last time over 50% of the electorate  
> voted for *anything* in the US?  (I.e., when was the last time - if  
> ever - a candidate for office in the US received 50*% of all  
> *possible* votes?)
> 
> What is the forecast for voter turnout for this upcoming presidential  
> election?
> 
> Chris Bruce
> Kiel, Germany
> 
> PS: Although point 3 above is a commonly-expressed opinion, it is not  
> held by all non-Americans.  In particular, it is not held by this non- 
> American (except perhaps in the sense that we are *all* bozos [ma  
> synonym for 'f.i.'s] on this planet).
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
> 



------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html

Other related posts: