Yes, a number of persons noted on this list during the last presidential
election that it might be a moment to vote the lesser evil, and certainly it
seems so in retrospect--consider that the French avoided LePen with "the
crook not the fascist" and so are in less of a pickle than either we or the
Israelis (too many of whom abstained at the time from voting for a corrupt
etc. and so got Sharon). However, the real culprit seems to have been the
huge number of persons not voting because they have been brainwashed into a
sense of helplessness and cynicism over politics, whether through propaganda
or quite real experience. And the lesson right now seems to be that this same
sense of pointlessness/futility needs to got through, especially in those in
their 30s or 40s, who seem the worst in this regard (some of the
early/mid-twenties kids, maybe fearing the draft, maybe just wanting to live,
seem to be moving). So, how do we do that? --I know, in my own case, in my
1957 or 1958, a very few students were forming a College SANE on campus, and
to my "How can we possibly prevent nuclear war?" one woman said, "But suppose
in Russia too some students are organizing and we can begin to [dialogue] and
then the [adults] see it is possible. . ." Just a few lines that happened to
get through; are there lines we can use now? Also are there lines, questions,
we can ask the "mass" of people who feel Bush etc. are protecting them, are
"doing a good job" ["Oh, how?" does not enough work, though you'd think it
would!]--questions that will make people see the contradictions between their
beliefs and what they're believing re Bush etc.?
Paula
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