...before you stop bitching and start acting?
I was just thinking to myself recently about the reality of how countries and societies are actually run in this world and how it actually effects the day to day reality of people's lives. You may live in a proportional representation democracy, a military regime or a communist party state but at the end of the of the day we all have a hundred and one things to worry about and keep us busy every day. In Germany we saw an entire nation sit back and allow the attempted extermination of a race of people to carry on right under their noses, in the US we see a country that spends billions and billions of tax dollars engaging in wars that may or may not be in the best interests of the tax payers themselves, in the Middle East we see countries that allow extremist groups to take power and rule with an iron fist. I lived with an Italian guy once who said he could not believe how much shit the Irish people took from their Government without complaining, he said that in Italy they'd be out in the streets marching within days!
We have a big referendum coming up here soon and our Government has given us 21 days to assess and evaluate a complex 250 page document (the Lisbon treaty), the Yes camp's main argument being that we don't live in a pure democracy and should trust our elected Government and give them the yes vote they desire...this coming from a Government that didn't even release an official statement after a record number of people turned out to march in protest at our Government's tacit support of the Iraq war. Our day to day reality may be changed dramatically as a result of this treaty (or subsequent treaties as the case may be) and Irish society as a whole seems to be walking blindly into this. One girl was asked on the news what she knew about the Lisbon treaty recently, her response was "I know I have to vote yes"!
It seems that nowadays people don't sit up and take action any more until the 'baddies' are kicking in the door with the guns blazing. What would be the watershed for you as a citizen to stop talking and start acting?
I was just thinking to myself recently about the reality of how countries and societies are actually run in this world and how it actually effects the day to day reality of people's lives. You may live in a proportional representation democracy, a military regime or a communist party state but at the end of the of the day we all have a hundred and one things to worry about and keep us busy every day. In Germany we saw an entire nation sit back and allow the attempted extermination of a race of people to carry on right under their noses, in the US we see a country that spends billions and billions of tax dollars engaging in wars that may or may not be in the best interests of the tax payers themselves, in the Middle East we see countries that allow extremist groups to take power and rule with an iron fist. I lived with an Italian guy once who said he could not believe how much shit the Irish people took from their Government without complaining, he said that in Italy they'd be out in the streets marching within days!
We have a big referendum coming up here soon and our Government has given us 21 days to assess and evaluate a complex 250 page document (the Lisbon treaty), the Yes camp's main argument being that we don't live in a pure democracy and should trust our elected Government and give them the yes vote they desire...this coming from a Government that didn't even release an official statement after a record number of people turned out to march in protest at our Government's tacit support of the Iraq war. Our day to day reality may be changed dramatically as a result of this treaty (or subsequent treaties as the case may be) and Irish society as a whole seems to be walking blindly into this. One girl was asked on the news what she knew about the Lisbon treaty recently, her response was "I know I have to vote yes"!
It seems that nowadays people don't sit up and take action any more until the 'baddies' are kicking in the door with the guns blazing. What would be the watershed for you as a citizen to stop talking and start acting?
