D.e.m.o.c.r.a.c.y (((((((((dicttor))))))))))

[Rat Faced]

Power to the People

And for all our younger viewers..Here's what we're talking about....










I'll get me coat......

[Sid Hartha]

Originally posted by ilw+29 December 2003 - 21:08--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (ilw @ 29 December 2003 - 21:08)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Sid Hartha@29 December 2003 - 19:04
So - in other words - you have never actually voted.

Wow, theres no sneaking things past you, whats your nickname... Razor?

Do you perhaps have a point? and if so, would you mind sharing? [/b][/quote]
I&#39;m sorry.

I just find it hilarious that you bothered to offer an explanation for why you missed the last elections ("my flatmate..."), yet you question the intelligence of people who managed to make it to the polls - let alone the entire system.

The irony escapes you.

[Busyman]

Originally posted by Sid Hartha+29 December 2003 - 21:33--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Sid Hartha @ 29 December 2003 - 21:33)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>

Originally posted by ilw@29 December 2003 - 21:08
<!--QuoteBegin-Sid Hartha

@29 December 2003 - 19:04
So - in other words - you have never actually voted.

Wow, theres no sneaking things past you, whats your nickname... Razor?

Do you perhaps have a point? and if so, would you mind sharing?

I&#39;m sorry.

I just find it hilarious that you bothered to offer an explanation for why you missed the last elections ("my flatmate..."), yet you question the intelligence of people who managed to make it to the polls - let alone the entire system.

The irony escapes you. [/b][/quote]
One of you reminds me of J&#39;Pol.

[3RA1N1AC]

how about this-- instead of having people go into the booth and pull lever A for the party on the left or lever B for the party on the right...

... they put a slot machine (brits call it a fruit machine, i believe) in the booth, with pictures of the candidates&#39; faces on the wheels, and whoever&#39;s face lines up after you pull, that&#39;s who you&#39;ve voted for. if you don&#39;t get three in a row, then your vote doesn&#39;t count.

[ilw]

I don&#39;t think i&#39;m qualified to vote either, but I don&#39;t feel that intelligence is really an important deciding factor rather it is the understanding and knowledge of the issues that i find important in deciding who should vote, the 50% intelligence thing was merely a vaguely humorous (to me) throw away comment. However, seeing as even greatly increased intelligence would likely not have helped me locate a postal vote that was basically hidden (without malice) from me by a flatmate, i still fail to see the irony or your point.

Do you actually have a real point to make on the subject of democracy, or on any of the material contributed by others in this debate or is this just trolling?

[Rat Faced]

Unfortunatly, there is no way to measure wisdom as their is intelligence....and Common Sense is in no way common.

Added to which, it doesnt really matter, as whoever gets in will probably not keep their manifesto promises... due "to the legacies of the previous government" even if its 10 years since a the opposition were in power.

We&#39;ve seen it all before...

The electorate will always vote for "Cakes and Circus&#39;s"......cant remember who im quoting there, however it basically means that they will vote for whats best for them personally, and not the country as a whole.

[Chame1eon]

Originally posted by ilw@29 December 2003 - 11:23

If 50% of people are below average that is half the population that needs to be represented.

Surely you don&#39;t really mean this? If you do then i sincerely hope you are never involved in electoral reform

I can&#39;t belive you&#39;re serious
If any group has power over anohter nothing is going to stop them from depriving the powerless group of the things they want and need. If everyone can play a part in making the decisions more people are happy, and cared for . What is the point of having a powerfull government if half of the people are unhappy?
Also, like i ws saying, we don&#39;t have an accurate mesure of intelligence. 50 percent is kind of an arbitrary number. the tests and the way the results are interpreted are constantly adjusted to fit a bell curve with 100 as average. Without the adjustment iq has been improving since the 40&#39;s so that a person with a score of 100 in 1940 would now have score of maybe 75.

[Snee]

I hardly ever vote for anything when it comes to larger elections, on the basis that I either don&#39;t know enough about the agendas of each party, or that what I know about these parties seem stupid.

I fear that many voters in my country only vote a certain way because they always have, or because their union sympathizes with a certain faction, or because they are doing like their parents, or because they are suckers ready to follow whoever shouts the loudest about feminism or enviromental preservation or whatever the next fad may be.

The politicians might not necessarily make a good point, mainly it&#39;s just empty rhetorics but still votes are given them because they are noticed.

To make matters worse, in my country, I sometimes can&#39;t even discern who is supposed to left-wing or conservative or whatever else just by looking at their politics, they just claim to be part of a certain ideology on the basis of tradition.

And if that isn&#39;t enough the media usually manages to make matters even more diffuse. I usually just vote blank just to show my displeasure with the system. That way the mistakes made aren&#39;t mine, of course this still makes me guilty of omission, which is a mistake in itself.

[Sid Hartha]

Originally posted by ilw@29 December 2003 - 22:10
Do you actually have a real point to make on the subject of democracy, or on any of the material contributed by others in this debate or is this just trolling?

Guilty as charged. I apologize - this does deserve a reply.

Where I live - not too long ago - a very major election was blown (in my opinion) because a minor third party candidate ran mostly on the premise that there wasn&#39;t any appreciable difference between the two "established" candidates. This message apparently caught on, mostly with moderate/liberal voters. They voted for the third party candidate - not because they thought he had a chance, but as a symbolic "other" vote to protest the mediocrity of the other two candidates.

Result: Bad, bad president. Two wars, economy in the shitter... hated by most of the world. I sometimes wonder if anyone who voted for Ralph Nader still believes there was essentially no difference between Bush and Gore.

Just a few votes would have changed all that. Voter apathy fucked us. When intelligent people stay at home (is this you?), that means the dumbasses pick our leaders (eg: USA).

There&#39;s always a difference between candidates.

edit/ so I guess I get a little cranky when someone who doesn&#39;t vote starts a thread like this.

[Pitbul]

me being a teenager have talked and heard other youngins talk about politics and tho the media portrays most teens today and violent morons whose cant walk 2 feet with out tripping it seems as tho most of us give more of a shit about what way the country is going then the so called parents. their will eventually be a generations that dramatically changes the future for tha good whether that me my generation or a few futher down the road i duno all i know is that at this piont in time the only flaws i see in America has to do with the goverment.