Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Stryke 9 on July 18, 2002, 04:45:45 pm
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What is politics in general good for, anyway? Does it have a direct effect on your life which President gets elected? Or if an unenforceable bill making it illegal to hum your favorite song's tune gets passed? Why make such a big deal about something that affects us, as a demographic group, at all maybe 1% of the time?
Face it, political news, etc. is entertainment. If you didn't read the newspaper or get news flashes from righteously angry politicoes, you'd never know about any of this stuff. So why treat it like it's a real, important thing?
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it is very important. it effects your life directly in many ways. if Gore had become the president, then we'd all be dead by now.
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riiiight....
although that is partially true, what about the more important politics like wars and stuff liek that. i don't really know the specifics of what i am talking about (heheh) but i guess its just important to a lot of eople. and if we didn't need to or want to worry but any of that **** we could do ourselves the trouble of worriing and have a dictatorship. Maybe what we hear is just a part of democracy. w/e, hopefully that made some sense.
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When was the last time you went to a war? Actually personally experienced war?
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well there was that ruber band gun war back in 97'.
those girls wouldn't stop teasing me .... i had to do something
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Originally posted by Knight Templar
well there was that ruber band gun war back in 97'.
those girls wouldn't stop teasing me .... i had to do something
My class had a rubber band war back in '99, we found a load of them in science.
People think that the news has quite an effect upon them, although have you ever lived for a long time without much knoledge of the outside world?
Next time you go on holiday for a while, if its somewhere out of the way and away from modern distractions, just think, after the 2 or 3 weeks, was you life much worse without knowing what happened in the Bloomberg 100 on tuesday?
Politics only really affects us in the extreme, ie when your country is at war or taken over by new goverment for instance. Otherwise, most changes a goverment makes are rarely noticable in every day life.
The weather has more impact on your life than politics.
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thats kinda what i meant... basically
i know what you mean though, when i went to Canada...... i hadn't seen the news in 2 - 3 weeks... but it was kinda interesting to see it again......... i kinda felt liek i was missing something without it, maybe just subliminally i felt ignorant .....
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...And, in essence, it wouldn't even make much of a difference if this WAS a dictatorship. It certainly isn't a democracy now, where people get to determine their own laws- that WOULD be different, if only somewhat so because you'd have to go and vote more often. Dictatorships aren't really effectively any different from any other government- they've had a tendency to be a bit more repressive on average than, say, a parlaimentary system, but they certainly aren't necessarily so.
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It's a republic. We go and vote arbitrarily for people we don't know anything about except for their "principles" (which they ignore immediately after taking office) and then they go do whatever the hell they want.
:blah:
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*ahem* Can we not derail this until it at least reaches second page? Sorry, but general criticisms have been covered before, I don't know that this has.
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?????
you wanted a discussion on politics... right?
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Politics itself, not governmental systems. Like I said, that's been done, and this is only the thread's eighth-or-so post, so...
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My Bad
i apologise ..... for me and everyone else. :)
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Politics is important because Governments are important. Governments are important because, like it or not, they try to organize people and achieve great and not so great things. Why does that matter? Because government ultimately let us do things like public water systems, TV, radio, the newspaper, probably had some influence on how your house was built (building codes). And we all care how our houses are built because we live in them...or try. So...yes. Important...even if you don't care, even if you don't think it impinges on your day to day activities...its there....it was and it will be.
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Originally posted by Carl
it is very important. it effects your life directly in many ways. if Gore had become the president, then we'd all be dead by now.
Please explain your opinion to all of us about the man who won the popular vote.
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Originally posted by beatspete
The weather has more impact on your life than politics.
Say that when your countrie's capital gets hit by a nuke.(What country are you from anyway?)
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Originally posted by Mr. Vega
Say that when your countrie's capital gets hit by a nuke.(What country are you from anyway?)
If, not when. And perhaps if he had said "daily life"?
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:sigh: :sigh: :sigh: :sigh: :sigh: :sigh: :sigh: :sigh: I didn't mean what you thought what I meant!:sigh: :sigh:
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Wait a minute, hold on here. You're all being ridiculous. Dictatorial coups? Nuclear attacks? These things would, yes, create a direct and personal involvement in politics. Except for one thing: They don't happen. Never will to ANY of you, in any of your lifetimes. The fact that you have access to and money enough to purchase FreeSpace, a computer, internet access, and generally at least one modeling program says that we're all from fairly wealthy countries, where the government is stable and hard rain will fall immediately after hell freezes over. Be realistic- you're acting like little children on an issue that requires you to think seriously- something that politics doesn't really prepare you for. Stop being silly, or post in the sex thread.
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Originally posted by IceFire
Politics is important because Governments are important. Governments are important because, like it or not, they try to organize people and achieve great and not so great things. Why does that matter? Because government ultimately let us do things like public water systems, TV, radio, the newspaper, probably had some influence on how your house was built (building codes). And we all care how our houses are built because we live in them...or try. So...yes. Important...even if you don't care, even if you don't think it impinges on your day to day activities...its there....it was and it will be.
Hold on a second. Before we attribute all these things to the nebulous 'politics' and 'government' terms, shouldn't we check that only those terms accurately describe who can carry out these activities? The information that I was reading following the collapse in Argentina was fascinating because it seemed to suggest public utilities and governmental roles such as the provision of food rations were baing carried out by extra-governmental forces - groups of citizens; communes, if you will. I'm not sure what happened to them because I haven't checked back in a while - but my question is this:
Does a group of people become some kind of 'government structure' through the provision of such services, or regardless of what they do for their people? Disregarding ideology, surely a nominal government that doesn't provide for it's people is a government only in name - because it doesn't govern for the people.
Sorry if that's a little messed up; I'm trying to think of a better way to phrase it.
Now, moving onto the stuff which is related to currently existing governments, like building codes. They may exist, but why should we care? The simple fact of the matter is that the influence of the public on such planning decisions is virtually nil. The same could be said about many other aspects of government, so why is it reported, and why do people get worked up about it?
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Politics does affect our lives, what we "learn" at school is determened by politicians, how much tax we pay is determined bt politicians etc etc. Believe me, if the SSSCA/CBDTPA passes (very unlikely) then politics would have affected everyones' daily life here.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Wait a minute, hold on here. You're all being ridiculous. Dictatorial coups? Nuclear attacks? These things would, yes, create a direct and personal involvement in politics. Except for one thing: They don't happen. Never will to ANY of you, in any of your lifetimes. The fact that you have access to and money enough to purchase FreeSpace, a computer, internet access, and generally at least one modeling program says that we're all from fairly wealthy countries, where the government is stable and hard rain will fall immediately after hell freezes over. Be realistic- you're acting like little children on an issue that requires you to think seriously- something that politics doesn't really prepare you for. Stop being silly, or post in the sex thread.
"venom enters the room"
How do you think our couries became wealthy? because of anarchy? why do you think that TODAY politics don't seem to have much impact on our lives? coz people like you thought it was useless, before?
" venom leaves the room, imagining how all those "wealthy" countries would be if there hadn't been for politics in the past. would have been much like his room, actually "
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I think what Styrke is saying isn't that all politics are useless for all people, but that they do have power for some but end up being meaningless for the masses. The only time people seem to take part in political processess is when the status quo is threatened, or must be changed. Look at your own country, venom - 98% turnout against Le Pen, and then a tiny turnout in the voting of people into the assemblies.
But I may be getting towards the problems of current political systems here.
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My country isn't a good exemple. After the le pen case, well, they want to change everything, they're thinking over all the laws ( right now they're talking about legal prostitution, if you want to know how far "everything" means ), toying with multiple taxe changes, thinking over the security systems ( better do, Chirac has been almost shot down sunday ). Believe me, right now, politics do have a lot of impact on everybody's life, every day, here. Anyway, I guess the exemple is not relevant coz the situation is unique, that's why I didn't use it.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
When was the last time you went to a war? Actually personally experienced war?
War? The Gulf War, 1991. Rushing into the sealed rooms in the middle of the night, going to school w/ gas masks and injections of whatever that anti-nerve gas was, etc etc.
Originally posted by Stryke 9
Wait a minute, hold on here. You're all being ridiculous. Dictatorial coups? Nuclear attacks? These things would, yes, create a direct and personal involvement in politics. Except for one thing: They don't happen. Never will to ANY of you, in any of your lifetimes. The fact that you have access to and money enough to purchase FreeSpace, a computer, internet access, and generally at least one modeling program says that we're all from fairly wealthy countries, where the government is stable and hard rain will fall immediately after hell freezes over. Be realistic- you're acting like little children on an issue that requires you to think seriously- something that politics doesn't really prepare you for. Stop being silly, or post in the sex thread.
*Ahem*
If a full-scale war doesn't break out here within the next 10 years (and I'm being generous with that number), I will be very (pleasantly) surprised.
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Originally posted by sandwich
*Ahem*
If a full-scale war doesn't break out here within the next 10 years (and I'm being generous with that number), I will be very (pleasantly) surprised.
Here? On the BB? :p
Or do you mean in Israel? Which would make more sense. :blah:
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Originally posted by Kellan
Or do you mean in Israel? Which would make more sense. :blah:
:nod:
EDIT: There should be a non-smiling nod... :doubt:
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her, never mind
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Originally posted by venom2506
her, never mind
Yeah, I'm sure than sandwich won't mind when he's called to fight on the frontlines of this war and risk death whilst his country is destroyed. :doubt:
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Originally posted by venom2506
her, never mind
Wait a sec! I wanna find out exactly who this "her" is that I'm supposed to ignore... :wtf:
:lol:
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Charo. :D
:lol:
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All right, so SOME people have a direct involvement in politics- sandwich would be one. An Iraqui activist, a marijuana user here, a black guy in Prince George's County- sometimes politics is important. But for most of the people on this forum, discussing it is like arguing over flood control methods while living on a mountain. Utterly silly and pointless. If Gore got elected, everyone would NOT be dead, in fact your lives would be indistinguishable from what they are now, except you might be railing against the president more or less, which is a direct result of political involvement. But unless you're directly involved in politics as a politician or an oppressed party, it's just a form of vapid entertainment. CNN is only a few shades better than Entertainment Tonight, really. Any revolt, war, etc. that occurred might necesite involvement (and might not- the Afghan war changed almost nothing here, except that your car would get stoned if you didn't have a flag on it, and revolutions are often far less sweeping than the revolutionaries would like to think), but those aren't happening, and none of the threads here in particular are dealing with revolution. Everyone's argung about pointless, inconsequential things like elections or "Democrat or Republican?", or any number of the little "issues" the armchair intellectual debates furiously while those who have to live with the outcome of the political environment live in misery. They don't have an effect on any of us, most people here (and I include myself in much of this) don't know **** about it, and arguing about it changes nothing in the least at any rate. I'm simply pointing out that it's a form of entertainment, and nothing more, so maybe people shouldn't take it so seriously.
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
Everyone's argung about pointless, inconsequential things like elections or "Democrat or Republican?"...
I can't describe with words how tempting it is to start a new topic called "Democrats vs. Republicans, a.k.a the 'Annoy Stryke 9 Thread'"... :D
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Wouldn't work. All political threads of that nature annoy/attract me equally. It's kinda a mix 'cos they're also ideal flamewar ground...
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Besides, Bush is a Republican and he has his party's full support.
But I'll shut up because I hate those threads also. Pointlesstisity.
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But pointlesstisity makes the world go 'round!
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i reckon, the thing about politics is, you don't notice it because there's no war around. you think its pointless because there's no war around.
if there wasn't politics, there would be war.
kinda like, politics prevents war as well as comes up with all the petty little things.
... does that make sense?
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...How does our bickering about abortion and voting rights for eggnog prevent war? :wtf:
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
...How does our bickering about abortion and voting rights for eggnog prevent war? :wtf:
It depresses people to the point where no-one wants to rule over the crappy country and thus doesn't bother trying to invade.
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not intra nation. inter nation. which means that among all the animal rights environment trading rights and all that crap there's diplomacy going on that prevents war.
or tries to.
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Back to my first point....
Originally posted by Blue Lion
But pointlesstisity makes the world go 'round!
You're too busy discussing pointless junk to invade! :D
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...So how do people here, at this forum, affect international policy in the slightest by saying "n00k dem damm Irakiz!" or arguing over whether Le Pen represents the Antichrist? :wtf:
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Originally posted by Stryke 9
...So how do people here, at this forum, affect international policy in the slightest by saying "n00k dem damm Irakiz!" or arguing over whether Le Pen represents the Antichrist? :wtf:
We aren't out actually doing stuff?
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Ah. I'll concede, that might actually help avert war. If someone in a nuclear-powered nation saw many of the views expressed here on TV or something, we might have trouble...:D
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interesting... The HardLight Productions Channel?
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I call anchor
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Fine. I'm the hot chick doing weather. Or the war correspondent who seems to be half-deaf from all the simulated gunfire going on behind him.
Anyway, back on topic...
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See? This is how war gets averted
[pothead]uh, what were we talking about?[/pothead]
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I suppose politics has little to do with one's daily practical affairs, but I think it does affect people's lives in long term issues.
EDIT: There should be a non-smiling nod...
A frowning nod? :wtf: :D
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Y'know, like "Yeah, that's pretty f*cked up right there."
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Originally posted by CP5670
A frowning nod? :wtf: :D
Bah! I knew there was a better word, I just couldn't be bothered to think of it at the moment! Yeah, that's right! :nervous: :p