Europe? Democracy? Political?

ON THE DOWN SIDE.

I wonder what our Prime Minister is up to when he says that the Irish made a wrong choice, and when even the British Parliament look to ways of pushing through the ratification of the Lisbon treaty using an endless string of euphemisms and lies.

Yes, of course the way the EU works needs reform, even though that is a stretchable term.

I can already hear some people say, oh you’re such a populist, whoever ‘the people’ are, they’ve been wrong before, and they are just not as enlightened as they should be. I beg to differ.

As if JCJ’s interest still lay, now, with ‘the people’. Jeejee, géi dach wech! Quetschen och! This would be like saying that GB has a long-standing, idealistic interest in EU construction enthusiastically shared by its average citizen. Ha! Bordering on the absurd now.

I think the European project of integration the way it is run today has nothing to do with how its foundational fathers imagined it. They would probably be turning in their graves, if they knew or cared about the monster that it has become.

Let me get it out there, for those new to this forum:

Experience shows me, everyday, all the things that are wrong with capitalism’s neoliberal version, as it spins in ever more unequal spheres.

I have also come to think representational democracy is a scam, albeit a brilliant one with a long-standing cultural history of optical illusion.

Yet you can hopefully also sense that I will probably never abandon concern with politics and effective social action bringing about positive change.

My political compass is definitely skewed though, especially since fieldwork. I would not even be able to say anymore, and of this I was so sure when I was younger, whether I am left or right.

To me none of that makes much sense, although I consider myself a highly political animal.

I hope I make politically the right decisions in my life and my work. Along with whoever (I forget) made the difference between ‘un homme politique’ and ‘un politicien’, I think that today’s rulers rather crowd into the second, ultimately self-serving, category.

C’est dommage, mais c’est un début!

 

ONE THE PLUS SIDE….

I had a lovely surprise.

In January, when I was home, I concocted a dossier of readings, largely inspired by Greenpeace’s action on implementing GMO Free Regions, in response to repressive (in terms of the possibility of organic “co-existence” of non-GM plants) legislation being passed in Brussels. I submitted this to my local Council in the village I grew up in.

A few weeks later, my parents got a phone call from one of the councillors asking whether I could come in to give a presentation about the issue.

Being stuck in the Deen, this proved impossible to me, but I remember being chuffed that they had, at least, taken note of the dossier.

About a week ago, my parents got a letter sent in the post stating that they had unanimously voted, in the council meeting, that this initiative I suggest in the dossier, be taken up.

Yeah! We need more encouraging examples.

I feel very drawn to the research area(s) of progressive politics, direct democratic procedures that effect positive social change. Anyone for any more concrete ideas? And I do not really mean Switzerland by this.