Looking at the role of the activist versus the politican.
June 1, 2006
A Place for Theory: Some thoughts on theoritical discussion versus pratical discussion.
Boycotts: Individuals only have the power to boycott when they join together.
Defining Instrumentalism: Defining the meaning of an important term in critiquing social policy.
Defining to Repudiate: Some thoughts on the word in context with modern society.
Dialetic of Irrationality Revisted: A simple explanation of my Dialetic of Irrationality.
Ethics of Bourgeoisie Society: Andrew looks at all the rules and regs and risks that us suckers in the middle class always end up facing.
Get 'R Done v. Public Debate: Government must focus on results and process.
Governing for the Little Guy: We need to give local government more authority.
Guns from a Symbolic Interactionist Perspective: A look at those things that scare some people and are a natural part of others lives.
How Change Works: An overview of Andrew's theory on social change.
How You Can Become an Activist: Some ideas on how you can become more involved in your community.
Human Reason v. Rationality: Thinking beyond the limits of rational scientific pursuit.
Humanistic Alternative to Irrationality: Considering the best way to look at the world.
Locke on Property: One Man's Interpretation: A rather historically incorrect, but interesting new interpretation of Locke on property.
On the Mass Society Paradox: Thoughts on mass society, it's problems, lack of solutions, and fakery.
Person and the Political: The individual is often quite different from the political positions he represents.
Problems with Marxist Thinking: A brief look at the issues that Marxist thinking poses to society.
Proposed System of Class: Developing a systematic way to look at class.
Public or Private Individuals: Notes on the philosophy of public-private individual conflict.
Role of a Liberal: How liberals must work to push pragmatic and progressive policies.
Rule By Law: Despite having bad connotations, all governments rule by law.
Strong Politics: Parties and the Executive: I am kind of divided on the whole strong v. weak party issue right now. But things have their advantages and disadvantages, I list them below.
Three Questions of Theory: Thoughts on three political questions.
What Does Politics Mean Today?: A look at politics, it's essence, and how it effects us as individuals.
What is Dialectic?: Exploring the dialectic method of looking at conflicting forces.
What is Law?: We talk about laws and obeying, but rarely what they mean.
What is Public Policy?: Coming up with a better defination for defining public policy.
What is Time?: Considering what we call to be time and how it effects us.
Why Communism Failed: Communism was too rational for our irrational society.
Why Some Facts Matter: Some facts we accept and others we reject.
Activism is quite different from politics despite their common goal for political change. Activism is about getting out a message to a greater public, while politics is the art of getting positive social change as official government policy. Activism focuses on:
While politics is the art of the possible and is about:
Activists are an important part of the political process. They do not create political change directly but inspire and encourage our political leaders to do the right thing. The next time people are willing to toss their hands up in frustration from the lack of political change, note they are only one part of the process. Playing the political game is the way to make change actually happen but it only can happen when people are fully aware of the ramifications of an issue.
![[Picture]](/img/small/schoharie/changedlandscape.jpg) | Abandoned From the Schoharie County Series. Added 6/1/03. |
Copyright ©1999-2008 Andy Arthur.
All mistakes are intentional or otherwise.
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