Politics. --- .See also: Law. --- 8/2/2001
Politics. --- .This section is about politics. Topics include: ( ) Activism. Political action. ( ) Apolitical. ( ) Change and politics. ( ) Functional areas. Foreign and domestic policy. ( ) Human rights. ( ) Information and politics. ( ) Moderate / extreme. ( ) Neutrality. ( ) Political agents. ( ) Size and politics. ( ) United States of America. ( ) What is politics. ( ) World vs. nation. --- 1/24/2006
Politics. --- "Earning just enough money to pay the bills", is an economic situation that keeps many people so busy they have no time and energy to pursue political activism. One way the masses are oppressed is by being worked ragged. --- 5/12/2005
Politics. --- (1) How do other areas (esp. sociology, economic, technology, natural environment) affect politics? (2) What is currently happening on personal (me), natural, and world levels? What is causing what is happening, and what can be done? (3) What events above are most important and why? --- 2/24/1994
Politics. --- (1) Political economy. Money and power. Rich nations have more power. Poor nations have less power. Development empowers poor nations. Money yields power. (2) Geo-politics. Geography and power. Oil. Water. Transportation routes. Good geographic position yields power. Amount of land. Quality of land. Farming land. Coast and ports. (3) Techno-politics. Technology and power. The rich nations have more technology. More technology yields more power. (4) Socio-techno-politico-economico systems. --- 9/1/2005
Politics. --- (1) Political philosophy: theorizing. (2) Political science: empirical observation. (3) Political technology: applications. In any political situation, what to do, why do it, and how do it? See ethics, ends and especially means. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- A bigger problem than rich vs. poor is wasted lives, regardless of class, due to crime, drugs, sloth, and lack of ethical thought and action. --- 01/04/1997
Politics. --- Alternative living. Have people be self sufficient but not isolated. People should have access to news about the world. People should have a wide body of knowledge, well beyond knowing merely how to live self sufficiently. --- 11/12/2005
Politics. --- American Indians, Buddhism and Communitarianism may have some views in common. Let's explore some possible views in this general area. Some of these ideas are exaggerated for arguments sake. (1) If everything is interconnected and all is one (a Buddhist views) then to some degree there is no private property, not even your body or mind. (2) When we say one person has responsibility to care for another (ex. parent for child) we are saying that people are not totally independent. (3) Nobody owns the land, as the American Indians say. People can temporarily lease the land (from everyone else). We all own the land. All things come from the land, including humans, so no one owns anything. (4) No one person can own another person. Slavery is illegal. (5) No one owns themselves, either in body or mind. Thus, no one owns the products of their body and mind. (6) The above ideas are in opposition to total private property, pure capitalism and total freedom (anarchy). (7) Total freedom equals anarchy, which is a state of no laws. In this world we choose not to live in anarchy because anarchy sacrifices justice. Thus, total freedom is not the best state of being for this world. (8) Total independence is a myth and therefore total freedom is a myth. No one can be totally independent of everyone else and everything else, and therefore total freedom is impossible. It is not merely that total freedom (i.e., anarchy) is not recommended. Total freedom is impossible. (9) The total private property argument yields such misguided statements as: (A) I can own anything, including other humans. (B) I can do whatever I like to anything I own, even torture or destroy it. (C) I can do anything I like to the land, including poison it. (D) I can torture any animal that I own. --- 11/1/2000
Politics. --- Analysis. In the political realm what is happening? What is causing it? How to change it? What to change it to? --- 01/01/1993
Politics. --- Analyze: who has power, how used, how react. Classify: how many in power, source of power, how wielded. Judge: which is best. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Apolitical and anti-political views. Suboptimal things people say about politics. (1) Some people say and feel they are politically powerless and helpless, even when they are not. Some people feel there is nothing they can do, even when there is. (2) Some people feel the candidates are all the same. (3) Some people feel the candidates are all corrupt liars. (4) People who adhere to such views are using negative thinking to try to justify their own inaction, and to assuage the guilt and regret they feel about their own inaction. --- 10/5/2004
Politics. --- Apolitical. Bourgeoisie decadents buying cheap plastic crap, the depoliticized leisure left, alienated and apathetic. As opposed to the engaged and active left. --- 8/23/2005
Politics. --- Apolitical. If you hold progressive views but do not take progressive action then you are not a progressive, you are merely someone who agrees with progressives. --- 6/15/2005
Politics. --- Apolitical. One could argue that apolitical individuals are worse than the political individuals, because the apolitical refuse to get involved and refuse to take a stand. --- 6/8/2004
Politics. --- Apolitical. One suboptimal attitude toward politics that some people hold is saying that since the person does not enjoy politics, the person will leave politics to people who enjoy it. Abdication of personal political thought, word and action is not a good attitude. --- 12/13/2005
Politics. --- Apolitical. There is no valid reason for being apolitical. Here is a list of some possible causes why people are apolitical, refusing to think or act politically. (1) Political thought and action is hard work. Some people are averse to hard work. (2) Political thought and action is difficult. Besides requiring effort, political thought and action are difficult in that it is not always obvious what to think and do. There often are no easy answers. (3) Political thought and action can be painful. Many people are pain avoidant. In politics one is often actively opposed by opponents who resort to dirty tactics. (4) Political thought and action can be risky. People who make public their political views are sometimes blacklisted or face other negative reactions. (5) Today, people are often encouraged by society to become "specialists". Some people buy the line that it is in their best interest to narrow the range of their thoughts and actions. They give up their power when they decide to leave politics to the politicians. They have forgotten the arguments for participating in democracy. (6) Some people feel they are too busy to participate in politics. These people say that they are too busy working in order to make money to survive. These people don't realize that overwork is a technique used by power holders to exhaust workers into complacency. (7) Some people are apolitical because politics is too abstract for them to appreciate. It can be difficult for some to think about abstract political concepts like equality. It can be difficult for them to keep in mind abstract political arguments. If they don't see a direct, immediate impact of a political problem in their own lives, and if they don't see a direct immediate effect of their political actions, then they don't maintain interest. --- 5/21/2005
Politics. --- Apolitical. Why are people apolitical? (1) Apolitical people often think that politics is a dirty business full of liars. (2) Apolitical people often think they can't have any effect on the political system. Disillusioned. Hopeless. (3) Apolitical people are often unconsciously afraid to think about issues, afraid to take a stand on issues, afraid to speak out on issues. (4) Apolitical people are often quite comfortable where they are and can't be bothered with politics. --- 6/7/2004
Politics. --- Apolitical. Why are so many people against politics? Many people are against politics because they had a bad experience observing student government elections in high school. --- 10/8/2004
Politics. --- Basic political questions. (1) What does the world look like? What do we want the world to look like? (2) What is the US doing? What do we want the US to be doing? (3) What are the other nations doing? What do we want the other nations to be doing? --- 5/16/2007
Politics. --- Beware reactionaries who start wars in order to bomb us back to the stone age. They want to live in the stone age. The stone age being the reactionary 1950's. --- 10/28/2003
Politics. --- Big questions. How can we get power? How can we get justice? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Blind nationalism, blind patriotism, is bad. --- 12/24/2003
Politics. --- Business functional areas applied to government. Management, marketing, finance, and operations management. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and develop. Change vs. stability. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. Evolution vs. revolution. Peaceful vs. violent. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. Evolution, stagnation, and devolution. Degree and speed. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. Policy. How much leeway to change policy is there within law? How easy is it to change the law to how different a policy? What stops total upheaval when party majorities shift? (1) Checks and balances in branches and parties. (2) The change process takes time. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. Political development in a group of x number of people, of y personality types, in z environment. First as an aggregate mob, then factions and alliances form, idea conflicts, and power struggles ensue. Who ends up rulers and ruled? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. Political struggles: types, causes, effects, how to. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. Succession of leadership in political situations. With or without authority. Degree of conflict. Degree of violence. Degree of opposition. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Change and politics. To enact change it helps to have power of (A) money, (B) position, (C) smarts, or (D) have the ear or favor of someone in power. --- 04/01/1994
Politics. --- Change and politics. What is to stop America from turning fascist or communist? If economic hard times or some other catastrophe occur, what is to stop the rise of fringe thinking and mass atrocities? Nothing absolutely prevents it. It could happen, easily, especially if liberals give up their struggle in thought or action. --- 12/30/1996
Politics. --- Change and politics. What stops a coalition from changing all the laws? Counter-balancing forces, and slowness of the policy for changing laws. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Checks and balances, we need them everywhere, in all areas of society, not just in government. Checks and balances are like cybernetic feedback mechanisms. --- 5/1/2000
Politics. --- China. 20% of the worlds population lives under Communism. --- 10/2/1998
Politics. --- Chomsky-ian type of argument. Big corporations have the big money to influence politicians and the media. --- 03/03/1998
Politics. --- Clinton, Bush and Regan were all elected on better looks than opposing candidate. --- 09/01/1994
Politics. --- Complexity of a political system. (1)(A) Size allows greater complexity. You cannot have much complexity in a small society. (B) Size does not guarantee complexity. A large society mis-governed can be homogeneous and stagnant. (C) Complexity is a good thing because it makes possible diversity. Complexity is not a bad thing. (2)(A) Technology can make possible greater complexity. (B) Technology does not guarantee greater complexity. Technology can be misused or mismanaged. (3) If you promote diversity then you allow complexity to develop. --- 4/26/2002
Politics. --- Complexity. As society becomes bigger and more complex, we need more laws and government. But do we need as much as we have? And can we make it more efficient? --- 12/15/1994
Politics. --- Computer voting dilemma. Every person voting on every issue is no guarantee of justice. The purpose of government is justice. Justice defined as fairness. Not justice defined as law enforcement. --- 9/5/1998
Politics. --- Concentrated power (example, dictatorship or monarchy) is not good. Power should be distributed, with checks and balances in place. --- 9/5/1998
Politics. --- Conflict. (1)(A) Disagreement: intellectual conflict. (B) Fighting: physical conflict. (2) Psychological harm vs. physical harm. (3) Just wars: necessity to fight bullies for self defense. (4) Diplomacy: communication for peace. --- 08/24/1994
Politics. --- Corruption in various forms of government. All the ways of cheating: bribes, extortion, kick backs, intimidation, violence, murder. You must have representatives from all interest groups, able to monitor all other interest groups. --- 3/30/1998
Politics. --- Current situation. Best and worst political regimes. How to measure this? Human rights? Mortality? Crime? Economic prosperity? Freedom of speech? Contributions to science and the arts (Nobel Prize winners?). How to fight the worst political regimes? --- 11/30/1996
Politics. --- Development of politics in humans. Politics in "primitive" societies. The "counsel of elders" is really an "old boys" network. They are not the smartest, nor the bravest, nor the most just. They are those most skilled at accumulating power by acquiring wealth and property. They accumulated power by developing political skills such as favor trading, bribes, threats, bluffs, bragging. They consolidate their power by working as a group to keep women and young disempowered, impoverished, uneducated, isolated, etc. --- 5/1/2002
Politics. --- Economics and politics. PART ONE. Liberal economic policies. (1) Government regulations to prevent Enron-like frauds. (2) Government regulation to prevent monopolies. (3) Progressive tax system. (4) Hold corporations accountable for their actions. (5) Make corporations pay taxes. (6) Friendly to labor. (7) Friendly to education, health care and welfare. PART TWO. Conservative economic policies. (1) Deregulation. (2) Privatization. (3) Run up a huge deficit. Let the next administration fix it. (4) Increase government spending on military to try to stimulate the economy. (5) Tax decreases for rich achieved through a flat tax. (6) Let corporations pay no taxes. Friendly to corporations. (7) Unfriendly to labor. (8) Cut education, health care and welfare. --- 7/20/2004
Politics. --- Everything is a political issue. A thing can be made mandatory by law. A thing can be prohibited by law. A thing can be encouraged with rewards by law. A thing can be discouraged with penalties by law. Nothing is beyond the political realm. A thing can be allowed by law. A thing can be disallowed by law. --- 7/26/2006
Politics. --- Evolutionary politics. (1) Political behavior in animals. (2) Political behavior in early humans (200,000 - 10,000 BC). --- 5/16/2005
Politics. --- Extremism. The problem is extremism. (1) Political extremism. (A) Right wing political extremists. (B) Left wing political extremists. (2) Religious extremism. (A) Fundamentalist religious extremists, who don't want separation of church and state, and who want a religious state run under religious law. (B) Anti-religious extremists who want to outlaw religion entirely (ex. old style Soviet Union and China). (3) Extremists say, "Everyone has to do everything my way, and I will use any means (especially violence and killing) to accomplish my goals. (4) Against extremism is tolerance, diversity and peace. Toleration and diversity help protect against power abuses by extremists. Yet we should not tolerate all acts. We should not tolerate terror, violence and murder. --- 8/27/2004
Politics. --- Freedom, health, and education are more important than material possessions. GNP is not as good a measure of a country's quality of life as mortality, literacy, and freedom, and convincing citizens that this is true. --- 10/30/1997
Politics. --- Functional areas. (1) Domestic: finance, police. (2) Foreign: diplomacy, military. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. (1) Form policy: who forms it and how? (2) Make it law. (3) Manage it: structure, mechanism. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. (1) Judicial branch: law judging. Function, purpose, importance, structure, mechanism. (2) Legislative branch: law making. (3) Executive branch: policy making. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. (1) Make law: legislature. (2) Enforce law: executive. (3) Judge law: judicial. (4) Argue law - lawyers. (5) Public administration: executive agencies. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. (1) What area. (2) How much control vs. free. (3) How much finance or support. (4) What do, how much, for who, how do it. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. Area, policy (means, ends), laws, reasons and arguments, evidence. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. Competing groups: their views, their power, and their tactics. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Functional areas. Government functions. (1) Self preservation and regeneration. (2) Protect rights of individuals and groups. (3) Resolve conflicts. (4) Regulate economy. (5) Provide services: how much, to who, how. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Government efficiency. How much good you get out of social programs vs. how much money you put in. Ex. Which country's government has the most efficient welfare program? Efficiency is separate from the decision of what and how much to give people. --- 12/30/1995
Politics. --- Government politics. When special interests control the government through money. When big business controls government through money. That is bad. --- 12/31/2003
Politics. --- History current future. History by abstract types and actual governments. By chronological, subject, geographic area. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- History current future. History of forms of government: characteristics, variations, pros and cons. (1) Primitive nomads: egalitarian. (2) Agricultural tribe/clans: divisions by age and sex. (3) Civilization: towns and cities. (4) Ancient: kings, priests/scribes, military. (5) Medieval: feudalism. (6) Modern: nation states, democracy, socialism, communism. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- History. Theory: analyze every political thought or idea concerning political philosophy, political science, and political technology. Practice: analysis of every political situation and action ever. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- How can we get justice? How can we get our goals? How can we get power? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- How did the Democrats sweep the 2006 elections? Various views. (1) The Democrats won the election by being better organized than the Republicans. More people are Democrats than Republicans. (2) The Republicans lost the election for several reasons. Katrina held back the Republicans. Republican scandals like Foley, Delay, Abramov, Hastert, etc. The war in Iraq is long, expensive, deadly, with poor results, and Bush lied about WMD's. --- 12/1/2006
Politics. --- How gain power? How gain office? How study politics: by using philosophy or science. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Human Rights. Can we agree on a list of human rights? See the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (i.e., The Helsinki Accord). --- 4/20/2000
Politics. --- Human rights. Goal. Use almanac to find countries with worst human rights abuses and work to pressure their governments. --- 06/10/1997
Politics. --- Human rights. Government to insure your human rights are met. Does that include the following: Food? Clothing? Shelter? Healthcare? Education? Safety? --- 4/16/2000
Politics. --- Human rights. Should we guarantee food, clothing, education to children? How to provide them? --- 01/01/1993
Politics. --- Idea: Boycott restaurants with pictures of gangsters, real or fictional, on the walls. --- 1/28/2004
Politics. --- If there is micro-economics and macro-economics then there is also micro-politics and macro-politics. --- 3/25/2006
Politics. --- In every subject/issue/problem area, on every level (world, natural, local), you should think it out, gather information, examine alternatives and arguments for them, then you should apply every political action technique. --- 01/01/1993
Politics. --- Information and politics. (1) Free access to public information is a right. Public libraries. Public education. Public Internet. (2) There are people who want to keep information secret and private for a variety of reasons. Hyper-competitiveness. Social Darwinists. There are people who mistakenly want to deny the public's right to information. --- 1/22/2004
Politics. --- Information and politics. (1) Its a struggle of ideas. The struggle to develop ideas. (2) Its a struggle of communications. The struggle to communicate ideas. (3) Its a struggle of emotions. Ideas and emotions go together. Ideas produce emotions. Emotions have ideas attached to them. (4) People attempt to sway emotions with their communications. (5) The struggle on a psychological level is the struggle for "hearts and minds". The struggle for "hearts and minds" is the struggle of emotions and ideas. --- 10/23/2004
Politics. --- Information and politics. Knowledge hoarders. They hoard knowledge. (1) They hoard knowledge for competitive advantage. (2) They hoard knowledge to sell knowledge to you if you pay money. (3) They hoard knowledge because they don't have much of it. --- 1/28/2004
Politics. --- Information and politics. Someday there will be a human right to information. You will get a computer hooked up to a world wide wireless network at birth. From this you will get access to unlimited information for your entire education. Only totalitarian dictators will not provide this. --- 09/01/1994
Politics. --- Information and power. (1) Big business corporations want to make money off information via copyright and patent control. Corporations want a monopoly on information. (2) Government wants to control the information about citizens. Invasion of privacy. --- 4/28/2005
Politics. --- Key to social justice is to document injustice. Document injustice for use as proof in court. Document injustice for exposure in the media. --- 1/14/1999
Politics. --- Laws force people to do things. Education shows them why they should do it. --- 08/17/1997
Politics. --- Levels of politics: international, national, local, and personal. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Levels of politics. (1) Politics on the idea level or the psychological level. Changing people's views and attitudes. (2) Politics on the action level. Making speeches. Distributing pamphlets. Protesting. --- 11/8/2004
Politics. --- Local politics can sometimes be a bore. Why be active in local politics? Be active in local politics to prevent schmucks from gaining office and power. --- 12/14/2005
Politics. --- Many different combinations are possible. (1) Small group politics vs. large group politics. (2) Homogeneous cultures vs. diverse cultures (many different subcultures). (3) Simple cultures (in terms of technology, economics or social structure) vs. complex cultures. --- 1/10/2002
Politics. --- Many people view government as a necessary evil. Actually, political participation often seems like a necessary evil, a pain in the neck. --- 7/25/2006
Politics. --- Me. (1) Why did I lose all interest in politics? Because most of it was petty b.s. Pessimistic apathy. Dogmatic "all politicians are crooks". Why did I forget about it, and never think deep on it? Didn't cover my bases systematically and constantly. Didn't write my ideas. (2) Why have I renewed interest in politics? I feel I can make a difference. I have goals, I want to change things. I spent enough time away, and did what I needed to. --- 09/20/1993
Politics. --- Me. My platform. (1) Free college level education via the Internet. (2) Four day work week, with Friday off for lifelong learning classes and free psychotherapy from a computer via the Internet. (3) Free lifelong learning via the Internet. (4) Free Internet access. --- 12/26/1997
Politics. --- Me. Paul's political situation. Paul's political philosophy (thinking). Paul's political action. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Media and politics. Power holders influencing media content. The corporations influencing the media. The government influencing the media. The rich influencing the media. --- 8/24/2004
Politics. --- Moderate vs. extreme. On the political spectrum, moderates face opposition from both sides. Fanatics, on either end of the political spectrum, face opposition from only one side. Fanaticism is an attempt to cut one's opposition in half. (pun). --- 9/22/2003
Politics. --- Moderate/extreme. How to dress like a moderate liberal, without becoming a fence sitting, middle of the roader, or a conservative; and still push like a radical, without being labeled a radical. Not too moderate to be ineffective, not too radical to be ineffective. --- 01/01/1993
Politics. --- Moderate/extreme. Middle of the road vs. radical liberals. More change can be made if you cajole or beg someone to take a little step than if you shout and order them to take a big step? --- 08/24/1994
Politics. --- Moderate/extreme. Moderates play good cop, radical extremists play bad cop. You need both, radicals to push, and moderates to appear conciliatory. --- 12/15/1994
Politics. --- More important than asking whether a person is a democrat or republican is asking whether they are interested in politics or not, and whether they are interested in politics on the global, national or local level. That is, before we sort the left from the right we must sort the political from the apolitical, and the cosmopolitan from the provincial. --- 6/1/2003
Politics. --- Most important idea about politics. The focus of politics should be justice. Justice has an ethical dimension. Politics has an ethical dimension. There is no politics apart from ethical considerations. The focus of politics should not be merely power. --- 5/29/2007
Politics. --- Most important ideas. (1) The biggest issues (big picture) are international issues like international government, international law, international economics, international finance, international trade, international development, etc. (2) The two big issues in international politics are the environment and social justice. Creating sustainable democracy is the goal. The main question is who are the biggest polluters, who have the biggest birth rate problems, and who are the biggest human rights abusers, and who are the most aggressive or war-like. (3) You can talk about (A) Those with the most power. The players. (B) Those countries with the most human lives at stake: India, Africa, China. (C) The best and worst countries, as far as polluters, human rights abusers, war makers. --- 4/15/1998
Politics. --- Most people choose a president based on an emotional reaction. Therefore, no amount of reason and argument will persuade them. These people are looking for someone they find physically appealing, with a pleasant voice, someone who seems affable. In this way the presidential election is not much more than a high school popularity contest --- 11/18/2004
Politics. --- National boundaries are arbitrary. The nations of tomorrow will be groups of people, physically spread out, who hold similar views. --- 8/9/1999
Politics. --- Nationalism, patriotism, xenophobia, bigotry, "My country, right or wrong". Nationalism, like religion and politics, brings out the worst tribal instincts. --- 11/30/2003
Politics. --- Nationalism. Love my country? I am a world citizen, so why should I love one country more than another? I want to see all countries do well. I want to see all people do well. I do not play favorites with people. I do not play favorites with countries. --- 11/22/2005
Politics. --- Nationalism. Nationalism defined as culture pride can lead to feelings of national superiority and cultural imperialism, which can lead to intolerance, oppression and exploitation. --- 1/4/2004
Politics. --- Nationalism. Rabid nationalism is wrong. Blind patriotism is wrong. People who think "My country, right or wrong", are wrong. --- 2/28/2004
Politics. --- Nature of politics. (1) We have needs to stay alive, regardless of others. (2) Wants, to stay ahead of others. (3) Concessions to get needs and wants: bargains and deals. Who gets the better end of it? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Neutrality is impossible. Even if it was possible, it is an ethically wimpy and indefensible position. --- 07/11/1997
Politics. --- Neutrality. There is no such thing as being neutral. --- 06/10/1997
Politics. --- Neutrality. There is no such thing as neutrality. --- 06/05/1997
Politics. --- Organized crime is waiting to move in. If civilization fails, if law crumbles, organized crime is waiting to take advantage of the situation. Organized crime wants to seize as much money and power as they can, by any means possible. --- 6/14/2004
Politics. --- Peace yields development of civilization. War causes destruction of civilization. --- 08/24/1994
Politics. --- Peace. Less than optimal views of peace. Peace defined as the short period between wars. Peace defined as a time to prepare for war. Peace defined as a temporary cease fire. --- 5/17/2005
Politics. --- People complain that politicians don't believe in anything. Who cares what politicians believe in? What politicians believe in is not important. Politicians are elected to represent their constituents. Politicians are paid to do what their constituents want. If there comes a time when what a politician believes differs from what his constituents believe then the politician should still do what his constituents believe. What is important is how hard a politician works for his constituents. So, to sum up: We the people hire (elect) politicians. What is important is how well the politician follows the peoples orders. Following the will of the people is what makes a good politician. Politicians should be treated like baseball players. It does not matter whose team they play for, as long as they help that team win. --- 4/16/2000
Politics. --- Philosophy of a government (ideas). Practical policies of a government (actions). --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Platform. (1) My political platform. My political views and reasons. My position on the issues. This is where I stand on the issues. See the "Politics, issues" section. (2) Everyone should create their own political platform. Building a political platform is one of the first steps in political participation for every citizen. Political platforms are not only for politicians. --- 1/4/2007
Politics. --- Political agents: major and minor political players, source of their power, and their political agendas. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political Agents. (1) Corporations. (2) Special-interest groups. (Example, industry groups, labor unions). (3) Political action committees (pacs). (4) Do they run America? How much influence do they have? --- 9/15/1998
Politics. --- Political agents. (1) Strength: intellectual, emotional passion, actions able. (2) Struggles: allies, enemies, and why. (3) Conflict: number, size, form. (4) Power: how much, what source, how well use, for what. (5) Form of entry into group. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. (1) The elite's (political, intellectual, economic, etc.). (2) The masses. (3) Popular opinion: ways to manipulate popular opinion. Advertising, rhetoric, propaganda. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Groups and parties. (1) Number of members. (2) Philosophical beliefs. (3) Cohesiveness: degree, and source. (4) Behavior: peaceful vs. violent. Tolerant vs. intolerant. Cooperation vs. competition. (5) Struggles: allies, enemies, forms of conflict. (6) Strength of group. (7) Form of entry into group. (8) History of group. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Masses: public opinion and public action. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Masses. How big, how strong. What mood (happy, unhappy, and why). How much they know about what's going on. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Masses. Statistical analysis of public opinion on x. Ask them what position do they hold. Where did they get this view from. How much they think about x. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Masses. Voter as thinking "change vs. no change" vs. understanding issues and positions. How best to reach voters. Attack opponent vs. promote self. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Number of members. Philosophy/beliefs. Intra-group and inter-group cohesions: similarities and differences. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Parties: cadre, mass. Party systems: single, dual, multi. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political agents. Parties. Party politics is tribal politics. Love and respect of one's own party, and fear, distrust and hatred of the opposing party, run as deep and strong in man as the tribal instinct. It is all pure instinct and emotion. People want to join into groups of "Us against them. Friends and enemies." The emotions you see at a political convention are tribal emotions. --- 08/24/1994
Politics. --- Political analysis: How many in power? How is power wielded? Static analysis vs. dynamic analysis. Analysis of political situation before event, during event, and after event. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political conversions. Benjamin Spock changed from conservative to liberal. Ezra Pound changed from decadent to nazi fascist. --- 12/30/1996
Politics. --- Political factors (elements, variables, structure, mechanism, relationships). (1) Political situation or environment: natural environment, social environment. (2) Political process (mechanism). (3) Political forces on (4) Political entities: political individuals, political groups and parties. (5) Political needs of entities. (6) Political issues about needs. (7) Political views on issues: political theory, political opinions. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political factors. (1) Political thought. (2) Political communication. (3) Political behavior and action. (4) Political events. (5) Political struggles: fight vs. seduce; negotiate, persuade. (6) Political policy. (7) Political change. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political process. Political environment or situation includes political actors or entities or agents who hold political ideas, and engage in political actions, i.e. struggle for political power to obtain values to get goals which they wield ethically or not, and create. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political science. What: study of political situations and relationships that exist. How: facts, theories. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political situation or environment. Environment, problems, number of people, number of philosophies on solutions. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political spectrum: socio-economico-political doctrines. For each point on political spectrum figure out (1) History of theory (political philosophy), and history of action (political science). (2) Philosophical beliefs: politics, economic, sociology. Subject, issue, view, argument, evidence. (3) Factors: for development, for decay. (4) Varieties of each. (5) Do this for fascism, conservatism, middle of the road, liberalism, radicalism. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political struggle yields a power holder, which yields political actions. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political superpower, like economic monopoly, is a bad thing. Hegemony is a bad thing. --- 5/16/2007
Politics. --- Political support or opposition. Supporters vs. detractors. In thought, word, and action. Open vs. private. Degree support/oppose ends or means. Degree peaceful vs. violent. Size of movement. How just are the movements means and ends? How effective? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Political system. (1) Running as planned vs. not running as planned. (2) Meeting goals vs. not meeting goals. (3) Degree of control desired vs. whether they are achieving that control, or are out of control. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Politician talk, "Let's put our differences behind us and work together in the future. Let's move forward in a positive manner." --- 12/30/1996
Politics. --- Politicians: we used to call them liars, now we call them actors. --- 10/27/2003
Politics. --- Politics among the ethical and unethical. --- 2/12/2002
Politics. --- Politics and knowledge of participants. Politics among the dim and ignorant. Politics among the savvy and knowledgeable. --- 2/12/2002
Politics. --- Politics as rules or norms. Formal rules vs. informal rules. % rules followed. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Politics as social conflict. Some people dislike and avoid social conflict. Other people enjoy and seek out social conflict. It is a problem when in a two party system one party is conflict avoidant and the other party is conflict attractant. --- 11/10/2004
Politics. --- Politics for any individual. Personal political situation faced with. Personal political philosophy hold. Personal political action done. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Politics for any specific group. What is the best political system and not and why? Balancing goal getting vs. justice, freedom, and equality. Group vs. individual rights. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Politics is based on (1) Sociology. There is no politics for isolated individuals. (2) Communication. Dialogue, diplomacy, words before actions. (3) Knowledge. Participants must know what is going on. Open society. (4) Interests, needs, and desires. Resources: power and stuff. (5) Ethics: good and bad. (7) Computers can help the knowledge and communication aspects. Computers can help societies change faster. Computers can also help societies (laws) react faster to the changes that take place in society. --- 11/30/1997
Politics. --- Politics is not just about national governments and laws. Politics is at work in every area of society and at every level of society. The big problem in politics is abuse of power and trampling the rights of others. PART TWO. Politics broadly defined as power relations. Politics narrowly defined as government and law. Broadly defined politics takes place outside the arena of government. Examples, family politics, workplace politics, etc. PART THREE. Abuses of power. Unethical tactics. Oppression, exploitation, corruption, crime, harassment, threats. --- 11/21/2003
Politics. --- Politics, Economics, and Technology. (1) Politics: who are the rising and falling powers? (2) Economics: who has money and who does not have money? (3) Technology: who has technology and who does not have technology? --- 5/16/2007
Politics. --- Politics, innate or learned? (1) Is the desire or propensity to engage in politics innate or learned? Are extroverts politico-philic, and introverts politico-phobic? (2) Is the tendency to become a left-winger or right-winger innate or learned? Do altruists become left wingers? Do egotists become right wingers? Do those who like change become left-wingers? Do those who dislike change become right-wingers? (3) Is it true that political affiliation changes with age? Are the young more liberal? Are old people more conservative? Do as many people switch political affiliation as not? Do as many people switch political affiliation in one direction as another? If so, is that change innate or learned? --- 7/26/2006
Politics. --- Problems. Dictatorship. Corruption. Anarchy. Injustice. --- 1/1/2005
Politics. --- Problems. Historical situations to avoid. (1) African military coup de' tat. How to keep the military under control? (2) Communist secret police. How to keep the police under control? (3) Russian, Italian, and Asian organized crime. How to keep them under control? (4) Rich kings. How to avoid exploitation of resources by rulers. (5) South America drug lords implicated in murdering judges and newspaper reporters. --- 7/18/1998
Politics. --- Problems. Many countries still have little freedom, little justice, little equality. (1) Child labor. Depriving children the right to education as an even starting line. (2) Women under the veil. Women deprived the vote. Women the property of husband. Women excluded from the workplace. (3) Blocked and banned information. (4) Imprisonment and death without trial. (5) Hit squads. (6) Government fraud. (7) No democracy. Dictatorship. (8) Uneducated population. --- 9/15/1998
Politics. --- Progressive politicians. (1) Admirable people. Bernie Sanders. Barney Frank. Sheldon Silver. Elliot Spitzer. Howard Dean. Paul Wellstone. Dennis Kucinnich. Harvey Milk. Shirley Chisolm. Bela Abzug. Al Franken. (2) How can you be pessimistic about politics? How can you say politicians lacks idealism? How can you say that you do not want to get involved? Democracy, politics by and for the people, requires you to be involved. If you are not involved then you abdicate to the sleazy opposition. --- 4/26/2007
Politics. --- Progressivism and politics. Understand the political dimension of the Progressive movement. --- 5/5/2007
Politics. --- Public opinion. Ways of measuring public opinion. (1) Public opinion polling. Create an unbiased statistical sample of the public's opinion on an issue. (2) Public opinion does not have to be measured by a statistical sample. Public opinion can be measured by direct response of the public. The public can vote informally. This does not have to have the finality of legal voting. You can give every person a voice or "vote" and let them respond anonymously to the issues. But you can't force people to participate if they don't want to. And you need to figure out a way to prevent people from voting twice. --- 2/28/2004
Politics. --- Real politics (what is the situation. what is practical) vs. normative politics (what should be). --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Resources (money, people, stuff) and distribution of resources. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Size and politics. Politics and size of group. (1) Small group politics. Example, New England town meeting. Example, Robert's Rules of Order. (2) Large group politics. Example, representative democracy. --- 2/12/2002
Politics. --- Size and politics. Politics in small and large societies. (1) Small, simple societies. Face to face interaction. Everyone knows everyone. There is time for everyone to discuss everything. (2) Large, complex societies. No face to face. Anonymity, strangers. No one knows everything. Representative democracy. --- 11/30/1997
Politics. --- Size and politics. Politics of the small group (under fifty persons) vs. politics of the large group (more than fifty persons). Today the large group is much more like the small group than it was in the past, due to communication technology. --- 1/20/1999
Politics. --- Stopping a charge. (1) To stop a charge, they can cut you off at the legs as you run. (2) To stop a charge, they can cut you off at the throat as you yell "Charge!". (3) To stop a charge they can cut you off at the mind as you think "Its time to charge." (4) The second is easier than the first, and the third is easier than the second. Corporations, religions, parents and other power structures try to do number three first. They know the mind leads the mouth and the mouth leads the legs. They aim at the mind. They try to get you to stop thinking and then they tell you what to believe and obey. (5) Ways how they do this. (A) Outlaw education. (B) Devalue education. Disparage education. (C) Devalue communication. Devalue conversation. (D) Devalue books. Devalue reading and writing. Or say that there is one book that will solve everything. (E) Propaganda. (F) Seduction or temptation. (G) Threat, coercion or force. (H) Devalue introspection. Keep you too busy to think. (I) Limit your experience. Keep you on a narrow path. Keep you in a small world. (J) Reward obedience with praise. Punish dissent. --- 7/6/2000
Politics. --- Subject, issues, aspects (sides), perspectives (viewpoints). --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Terror. Reasons not to use terror tactics. No suicide attacks. Don't stoop so low. No kill non-combatants. Even if enemy does. Maintain an ethics of war, like the French resistance did under Nazi occupation. --- 9/2/2004
Politics. --- The basis of politics today should be the recognition by the individual that, "I am a global citizen first, not a national citizen, not an ethnic citizen, not a tribal citizen." --- 1/31/2004
Politics. --- The big political problem is (1) Disempowered people, uneducated, poor, ill, exploited, intimidated, oppressed. (2) Power abusers, who rob people, who bully people, who deny people rights, who intimidate people, who murder people. --- 10/12/2006
Politics. --- The big question is: What kind of country do we want? What is government's job to do? Some say governments job is to blindly follow the constitution. (A) They say this because they feel the constitution worked for 200 years (with many amendments). (B) They say this because they think the writers of the constitution were all geniuses (and they think there have been no geniuses since then?). (C) They are a bunch of authoritarian, founding-father worshipers. --- 4/16/2000
Politics. --- The most important thing about politics is to get involved in politics. Think about politics. Get involved in political discussion and debate. Vote. Protest. --- 5/27/2007
Politics. --- The power that power-holders hold vs. the power that power-holders say they hold. Purported political philosophy espoused vs. actual political philosophy used. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- The real battle is against injustice, crime, force, terror, violence, war and feuds. --- 2/12/2002
Politics. --- The real test of a political system is if it can handle the maximum amount of diversity that is still ethical. --- 6/22/2001
Politics. --- The realm of politics is not just the realm of social power. The realm of politics is the realm of everything. --- 2/28/2002
Politics. --- The state (the nation) defined as the largest area of law. Move to another area and you are in another state (nation). Counter-argument one: there have been people charged by an international council with war crimes against humanity. Thus, the largest area of law is the world. Counter-argument two: Universal law would apply to all sentient beings in the universe. So the state (nation) is not so fundamental after all. --- 2/18/2004
Politics. --- The world political system must have the ability to respond, in a just manner, to any person or group, of any size, that has committed any act based on any philosophical viewpoint. --- 1/27/2007
Politics. --- To paraphrase Michael Parente, "Educate, organize, agitate." --- 7/1/2005
Politics. --- Trends. (1) Computers will increase communication, which will cause a decrease in the power of nation states. Due to globalization, an increase in world government will occur. (2) Computers will cause downsizing of government. (3) Computers will cause change in democracy, making it more participative, with voting from home. --- 12/29/1997
Politics. --- Two big questions in politics are: (1) How do you educate and motivate hypo-political individuals? The apolitical. The politically inactive. The politically apathetic. The loners. The passives. The non-voters. (2) How do you educate, guide and reign in the hyper-political individual? The power hogs. The war mongers. The megalomaniacs. The unjust. --- 2/21/2004
Politics. --- Two views of politics. (1) Politics as about justice. (2) Politics as about power. (3) I hold the former. --- 11/8/2004
Politics. --- Two views. (1) Take shit, and then give shit. (2) Take no shit, give no shit to others. The latter view is best. --- 03/20/1993
Politics. --- Types of rights, and spectrums of individuals rights. Totally free vs. totally unfree. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- Uniform wearing societies are pathological. No freedom of speech, expression, and thus thought. Freedom of speech is synonymous with freedom of expression (visual arts, dance, fashion, music), which is related to freedom of emotional expression. Freedom of speech also helps ensure freedom of thought. Freedom of thought and emotional expression help ensure up a psychologically healthy population. This is politic's relation to psychology and art. More people go crazy under repressive regimes. A society that makes its members wear uniforms is a repressive regime. --- 9/15/1998
Politics. --- United States foreign policy is created by the rich and powerful, and serves the interests of the rich and powerful, which is, namely, to conserve their riches and power and to get more riches and power. The rich and powerful in the US today are corporations. For example, during the latter half of the twentieth century, the US propped up a series of right wing South American dictators, largely to the benefit of US corporations. --- 8/25/2004
Politics. --- United States foreign policy is one of self preservation through the accumulation of resources. The aim of US foreign policy is to maintain and extend US power abroad. The US wants to exercise control and influence through the use of political, economic and military power. (1) Military power: control of land, sea and air. (A) Military sea power: control ocean bottlenecks like the Dardanelles, Suez Canal, Panama Canal, Cape Horn, Cape Hope, North Sea and Jakarta Straight. (B) Military air power: have US planes circling the globe 24x7 and without impediments. (C) Military land power: control the land corridors between land obstacles of mountains, jungles and desserts. Control the roads. Have military bases in many foreign countries. (2) Economic power. Get US corporations into other countries. Get a steady supply of raw materials at ridiculously low prices. Exploit foreign natural resources. Exploit foreign labor. Make other countries economically dependent on the US. Make other countries markets for American goods. (3) Political power. Gain allies. Isolate enemies. Use a political public relations campaign. Control the media. (4) Technological power. Maintain a technological edge over other countries through R&D for the military-industrial complex. --- 9/2/2004
Politics. --- United States foreign policy. (1) The US tries to corner all the natural resources. The US tries to corner all the money. The US tries to corner all the power. (2) Is America's foreign policy one of "Truth and justice first" or is it one of "Money and power first"? (3) US foreign policy serves US corporations. (4) US foreign policy is self serving, not altruistic. --- 9/1/2004
Politics. --- United States of America. (1) Rights and duties of being a legal adult in the USA. Vote. Drink. Drive a car. Work. Be your own guardian. Join armed forces. Get drafted. Pay taxes. Be guardian of your kids. Adopt a kid. Get a passport and visa. Legal culpability for crimes. Buy a house and car. Legal marriage. Bank loans. Open a business. Have sex with another adult. (2) Because they lack the above rights, teens feel disenfranchised, alienated and angry. All teens can do is get a library card. --- 4/16/2000
Politics. --- United States of America. Current U.S. politics. (1) Situations: good and bad points. (2) Issues and alternative courses of action available. (3) Answers, solutions, views, plans. Who and how many hold them. (4) Analyze all aspects of political situation now, past, and future. Swot, problems. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- United States of America. Views of the american people on the major issues (race, sex, gender, environment, religion etc.) (1) Do we hold shit views? (2) How does holding shit views affect us? (3) Are we in trouble? (4) Do the people think or know we are in trouble? --- 09/25/1993
Politics. --- United States of America. What does America mean? Practicality and pragmatism? Independence? Revolutionary spirit? Pioneer spirit? --- 12/30/1996
Politics. --- United States. Differences between what the American government administration does, motivated by power and money, influenced by big business, versus what the typical American citizen thinks, surrounded in their cocoon of willful ignorance, and enshrouded in a mental haze due to overwork. --- 6/26/2004
Politics. --- Views for and against politics and political participation. (1) Positive views of politics: Government is good and necessary. Democracy is good. Politics is about law making and justice. Everything has a political side. Political participation is good and necessary. Political participation is effective. (2) Negative views of politics: Politicians lie. Politics is dirty. Politics is corrupt. Government is not necessary. Political participation is futile. (3) I think the pros outweigh the cons in politics. --- 12/2/2006
Politics. --- Voting. If a town does not have enough money to hire enough poll workers and buy enough voting machines so that everyone in that town can vote during the hours that polls are open, then the people need more time to vote. America should vote on weekends, when people have time off from work, allowing two days instead of one day for voting. --- 11/5/2004
Politics. --- Voting. Some people mistakenly try to argue the following: (1) Both candidates are the same. (2) The President has no power and doesn't do anything anyway. (3) Grassroots effects change, not elected officials. (4) Another Bush term will build problems to the point where grassroots action will be mobilized. (5) They even said that Zinn backs them up, even though Zinn said to vote for Kerry. They say that Chomsky backs them up even when Chomsky says its worth voting for Kerry. (6) Ironically, after Bush won the election, these people were crying out about how bad it was. --- 11/1/2004
Politics. --- Voting. Two objections sometimes heard are that that voting is hopeless and that both candidates are the same. Counterarguments: (1) To not vote is, in effect, to cast a vote for the opposing party. (2) If you say that both sides are the same then you might as well vote for the other side. --- 10/10/2004
Politics. --- Voting. Why are the elections so close? The voting public can be described by a bell curve, with the majority of voters grouped around the middle. The Democrats and Republicans look to see where the middle is, where the majority hold their views, and then pitch messages near the center. The Democrats aim slightly left of center. The Republicans aim slightly right of center. --- 10/10/2004
Politics. --- Wants (needs and luxuries) yield values. Values yield goals (ends). Goals yield strategies and tactics (means, policies). --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- What is my platform? Everyone should have a political platform, not only politicians. Everyone should have a public political platform. --- 12/28/2006
Politics. --- What is politics? Everything is potentially political if put into play by you or others. --- 12/14/2005
Politics. --- What is politics? Humans are political animals. All human affairs have a political dimension to them. All subjects that humans are involved in have a political side to them. Politics is unavoidable, much like ethics. --- 10/5/2005
Politics. --- What is politics? Politics is difficult. Politics, at its worst, is a dirty, sleazy, treacherous business. Politics at its best is life affirming. Politics is important and not to be ignored. Politics takes time and energy. --- 5/12/2005
Politics. --- What is politics? Politics should be defined as societal ethics. Politics is an endeavor of ethics. Politics should not be limited to discussions about power. Politics is about ethics, not power. Politics is about justice. Justice is a concept of ethics. Politics is essentially a normative endeavor. Political science, in its attempt to be non-normative, is a half-assed pursuit. --- 2/27/2007
Politics. --- What is the situation we are faced with (causes and effects)? What are our alternatives? Rule out what alternatives, why? Of the remaining choices, who holds which positions and why? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- What. Just as all relationships are sexual, all relationships are political. Every act (and every thought) has political repercussions, even if only in the mind(s) of the people involved. --- 01/02/1997
Politics. --- What. What is politics? Social struggle for power = politics. Social struggle for stuff = economics. Both are interrelated. --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- When can you justify the following behaviors? (1) Not breaking the law, yet engaging in non-violent protest. (2) Breaking the law. (A) Non-violent protest vs. violent protest. (B) Ethical actions vs. unethical actions. (3) Revolution. Rebellion. Subversion. Resistance. --- 7/30/2002
Politics. --- Why do people seek power? Why do people run for office? Why do people study politics? --- 12/30/1992
Politics. --- World politics. (1) Nineteenth century was England's. Twentieth century was the United States. Twenty first century will be China's. (2) America's lead is dwindling. The rest of the world is catching up. --- 9/1/2004
Politics. --- World vs. nation. In a global federation, one nation attacking another will seem as silly to us as the thought of New York declaring war on New Jersey. --- 8/8/1999
Politics. --- World vs. nation. Just as we are free to choose what Internet Service Provider we use, so should people be free to vote for what country they want to belong to. In today's age of the Internet, when time and space are being conquered by communication and transportation technologies, the concept of "nation" as we currently know it is less important. Individuals have greater power and freedom to choose their government. --- 11/20/1999
Politics. --- World vs. nation. Politics today is not about the nation state for three reasons. (1) Inter-national cooperation has evolved to the point were national isolation is inadvisable. (2) Cultural homogenization is proceeding to the point where cultural differences are less pronounced. Also, tolerance of multi-cultural diversity is progressing to the point where cultural differences are less of an obstacle. (3) Technology is getting smaller yet more powerful, so that we have to deal with the technologically destructive power of individuals and small groups as well as nations. --- 6/22/2001
Politics. --- World vs. nation. The world is now the big nation state. In the history of the world there is a trend toward increasingly larger areas of cooperation. The tribe was perhaps 100 people in 10 square miles. The feudal principality was perhaps 10,000 people in 1000 square miles. The nation state is perhaps 10 million people in 1000000 square miles. Next is the world federation. And then comes a galactic federation. --- 6/30/2000