Sinister: power, politics and, well, bumbershoot...

[Robyn Fadden]

hm. and wow. hello all.

n|ck g mentioned american politics, thus reading my mind...
i'd been sort of guiltily ignoring it for a while (a bit of
a complex guilt since i'm canadian...), but then the bits
and pieces i would see started being interesting (! or
maybe i started to care...) and i began to get a little
antsy and ill reading all the coverage of demonstrations
around republican/democrat conventions. Because the thing
is, this all matters. The world is not made up of
individual countries concerned only with what goes on
inside them; it is made up of powers working together. But
are they actually "working together for a better world"...
And what are bush and gore's definitions of "a better
world" anyway? I see a lot of corporate rule, a bigger gap
btwn rich and poor, and a few band aid solutions. I don't
see any global shift in thinking. but some would argue,
with twisted stats and tv images of californian splendor,
that nothing needs shifting...

And what kills me is that so few people vote. the reasons
for this, well, i don't know. apathy? disgust? belief that
not voting is actually "taking a stand against government"?

yes, so, if we're really looking for oxymorons: "the united
states, land of the free" seems pretty apt. one of the many
things i've read, mainstream and otherwise, is z magazine
online, which has a lot of Vote Nader stuff that has
honestly been the only interesting and sensical thing i've
seen/read/heard about (http://www.votenader.com/). (Yes,
Nader is yet another personality, yes, he is playing at
politics, but he's actually interested in, oh my god,
*change*. i'm sure he's not perfect, but he's a hell of a
lot better than bush and gore. and at least (one hopes) his
presence during the election run will raise some currently
apathetic/cynical/disenchanted eyebrows, spark some
thought, start some action.)

n|ck g said:
>that the person that we pick to run our country's 
government is just someone that is good at getting the
public to like him? 
>From my small grasp of US politics (which an american
friend just told me is better than that of a lot of
americans she knows...), the political system is set up to
do just this. you vote for a personality really, this
personality makes final decisions (never mind that these
decisions are often based on financial backing, historical
influence and your friends in the senate. sorry, that's the
socialist in me getting out.) I don't know, but it's pretty
clear to me that if citizens don't understand their
country's political system, then they don't understand how
to vote (check out the current state of public education in
the US). there's some interesting, and more knowledgeable
writings on this at:
http://www.lbbs.org/ZNETTOPnoanimation.html, read michael
moore's letter especially and 
http://www.villagevoice.com/
as well as miriad others, i'm sure. 

Frustratingly, what is common sense to one person, is
absolute nonsense to another, and we see this all the time,
from politics to music. And we get bogged down in the
arguments, losing the big picture to power issues. But hey,
if mainstream radio listeners are suddenly buying belle and
sebastian and liking it, then there's hope in other areas,
isn't there? i don't think it's all that weak an analogy,
really.

jarring leap in topic:
Is anyone going to Bumbershoot in Seattle on labour day
long w.e.e.k.e.n.d.? because you know who's going to be
there, don't you? hm, oh, only the Magnetic Fields. and
lots of other bands and writers and artists, of course
(http://www.bumbershoot.com). so i must go this year, if
only for two of the four days. i've never stayed overnight
in seattle though, so here's my plea for tourist sympathy -
what are some good places to stay (hopefully nearby the
festival site) that don't cost too much and are, well,
clean? i've looked on the web, but one never knows; they're
all trying to sell themselves or there's too little info to
determine okayness. i'd so appreciate any suggestions,
thank you. in return i will give you huge travel tips on
vancouver and very small almost meaningless tips on new
york, toronto and small towns in eastern poland. 

never speaking in sound bites,
Robyn

=====
I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything. ~Steven Wright
~~~
Robyn Fadden    rfadden at yahoo.com    Vancouver, BC

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