[Sandy Sandfort]

Ray Dillinger wrote:

> This is just a guess, but what *I*
> think motivates these people is
> frustration and disenfranchisement.
> It's not that any substantial group
> of them want any particular thing,
> it's just that the whole bunch of
> them feel that they don't have a
> voice in what's happening any more.
> The "globalization" people are
> consulting *each other* instead of
> the people affected by the laws to
> figure out what laws they should
> pass, and the people are pissed off
> because they don't feel that they
> have any input into the process.

There are several possible answers to what you have written.  First, at
least theoretically, your "'globalization' people" were elected to represent
the people.  In a democratic system, the people's "input" into the process
is the ballot box choice of their representatives.

That's theory.  Personally, I think the problem is the idea that we need
laws (i.e., the threat of violence) to address the problems in question.

> Also, the personal pressure on them
> is a little higher every year as
> the forces of capitalism get more
> ruthless and efficient at exploiting
> them as a market and as cheap labor...

I'm not sure what you are talking about.  What are the "forces of
capitalism" to which you refer?  Personally, I try to avoid the word
"capitalism" at all.  First, it's a pejorative Marxist term.  Second,
everybody seems to have a different definition.

If you mean "free market economics" I totally disagree with you.  If you
mean government welfare for favored businesses, well, we might have some
common ground there.  Clear definitions make all the difference in the
world.

> Capitalism from the worker's
> perspective means working longer
> hours, getting paid more, and
> winding up under family pressure
> (because your family is an
> intensely and effectively
> targeted market) to spend it all
> on stupid stuff.  Furbys, TV's,
> and barbie dolls, for god's sake.
> So at the end of the day they
> have more stupid crap but they're
> poorer and more tired and have
> less time to spend with their
> family - and after a while they
> get frustrated.

I'm sorry, the Furby definition of capitalism isn't very cogent or helpful.

> But none, or few, of them see it
> in exactly those terms. They're
> just angry and frustrated and they
> don't really know why.

Why don't they know why?  Can't they read?  I have so sympathy for militant
ignorance when the world is awash in information about how things work.

> The few issues they believe in
> are getting ignored...

Which issues are those?  So far, I haven't heard of ANY issues raised by the
rioters that are being ignored.  Controversial/unproven issues such as
"global warming" are being discussed ad nausea.  The main reason the
governments of the world aren't "doing something" is because no one knows
what really needs to be done.  Ignorant rioters THINK they know what needs
to be done, but there is no reason to believe they know squat about the
subject for which they claim to have such passion about.  Opinions--and
that's all we're talking about here--are like assholes; everyone has one.


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