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>From: •••@••.••• (Marilyn Davis)
Subject: Re: On Electronic Democracy [cr-95/11/20]
To: •••@••.•••
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 1995
Dear Cyber-rights,
G. Scott Aikens' thoughtful message is excerpted at the end.
In response:
Dear G. Scott Aikens,
I don't mean to undermine your excellent work, or any of history's
good men. We'd be absolutely nowhere without it -- no possibility
of a good future.
But history itself looks pretty bad to me. For the last 5000 years,
always, more than half the world's people have been oppressed.
History is *his* story: the largely violent struggle between the
"good" and "bad" *men*; a story of the struggle to dominate, and,
necessarily, to oppress, repress, and thereby cause general
perversion.
And no, I don't like our political process. My loss of faith came in
1984 -- 2 years after the Freeze movement -- remember that? So many
of us worked so hard to put initiatives on state ballots in 1982
demanding that the government stop making nuclear weapons. It was a
huge, popular, and successful movement in that it was overwhelmingly
supported by *people*.
However, in 1984, none of the candidates for the Democratic nomination
for President would even discuss a Freeze on nuclear weapons -- and the
press never pushed them to do so. We were ignored.
In the end, our choice was between a 6% rise in military spending if
we voted Democratic or a 9% rise in military spending if we voted
Republican.
That was also the year that I discovered that both parties were funded
by the same big money interests.
Our politicians don't serve us. We are their wards, to be subdued,
manipulated and milked.
So, no, I don't like our political process.
And look what's happening now. The EPA is being dismantled for lack
of funds but we have plenty to join the fighting in the Balkans. This
is further evidence that our government's priorities are to protect
itself and other big money interests. It has no real ambition to care
for us or for our earth. It only puts up a little pretense ... and
precious little.
I'm very concerned for the near future of our planet.
However, I'll be happy if you're right. If we manage to use this
technology to force our politicians to come clean, that's a good
solution in my eyes.
Otherwise, those politicians will have to face hoards of well-
organized empowered cyberspace activists.
*
Marilyn *
*
*
Marilyn Davis, Ph.D.-------------- * ---- eVote - online voting software
| * demo at (415) 493-8683 |
3790 El Camino Real, #147 * * Weekdays, 10-5 PST |
Palo Alto, CA 94306 USA * * log in as "eVote" - no quotes.
(415) 493-3631 ------------- * * -------- •••@••.••• ------------
*
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sender: "G.S. Aikens" <•••@••.•••>
By way of background, I was involved in the MN E-Democracy Project during
the 1994 election season, organizing and hosting the E-Debates for the
Project. We provided a great deal of candidate information. But more
[ delete ]
agree with her goal of encouraging deliberation but, I must ask, does she
find something wrong with the representative system we have had for over 200
years? Isn't there already a place in this system for the vote on
the day of elections? Why then does she believe we need to vote and take
[ delete ]
If I understand the situation correctly, my primary disagreement with Ms.
Davis is over whether history has anything valuable to offer or not. When
[ delete ]
G Scott Aikens
---
Tel: 01223-571-170
E-Mail: •••@••.•••
WWW: http://www.dar.cam.ac.uk/www/gsa1001.htm
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Posted by Richard K. Moore (•••@••.•••) Wexford, Ireland
CyberRights co-leader | Cyberlib=http://www.internet-eireann.ie/cyberlib
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