Democracy

The present government was elected upon the strength of the votes of 35% of 61% of the population of Britain. Does that undermine democracy? Well, aside from the fact that representative democracy in itself is not what I think of as democracy, the general principle of democracy is not that people's views should somehow magically be taken into account without them actually doing anything. It's that there are platforms for active citizens to make a difference. I'd love to see everyone in Cambridge being more politically active. Everyone in the world, in fact. My ideal world is one where everyone's so politically active that concensus decision making is the basis of all political activity.

But we couldn't force people to join our occupation and help us decide what it should be. If people thought it should have been something different, we would be the first to commend their actions if they decided to do something about that. A friend suggested that J-Soc and Israel Soc could combine to demand that the university issue a statement recognising the West Bank as part of Israel. If J-Soc and Israel Soc were to organise an occupation and run it using concensus decision making, however, the group that got involved with this week's one would, I'm sure, turn up in force, watch their films, hear their talks, and help to shape their decisions.

If you're interested in knowing more about the occupation, follow the link on the right-hand side, where you can find out all about it. Coming up: my thoughts on nationalism. Isn't that exciting! Please do make sure you let me know what you think by commenting!