[MD] politics and food

[gav]

hiya,
i think obama will be an improvement on bush and is preferable to mccain. however this isn't saying much. i think spongebob squarepants would also be an improvement on dubya and co.

so hopefully he will get in and the US may change direction a little. i am  skeptical that he will presage any fundamental change. call me cynical...but i think most of you will probably agree.

ted trainer from the uni of new south wales gave the keynote speech at a conference i went to recently (australian school gardens network). he said the most efficacious route to change is the path of least resistance...ie ignoring the government to death, rather than trying to fight/change it.

an ostensibly contradictory aside.
 a web based social change networking tool is working well over here. 'getup' petitions the government on various issues, providing a simple, quick interface that connects the individual with the relevant politician such that the pollie's office is swamped with thousands of personal emails and letters from concerned constituents. this platform helped end mandatory detention of refugees here just last week; it also brought a planned pulp mill in tassy to a grinding halt. seems like it's working.

by extension the networking power of the net means local community co-ordination is becoming easier all the time (eg facebook). this power is grassroots democracy. i work for community organisations in brisbane. the interdependency of such groups - community supported agriculture, housing co-ops, refugee advocacy services, permaculture design and landscaping etc - is mutually beneficial: synergistically catalysing the evolution of an alternative social model....nice.

so all i am saying is yes i too would love to see BO in the not so white house, but evolutionary change will be driven by the co-ordinated efforts of enlightened individuals, chiefly at the local level. if political will falls in line with this sustainable, local ethos all the better, but it definitely cannot be relied on to lead the change.

i think the localisation of food production is the basis of the change.
food really is the lowest common denominator.

and to finish a question: where do you get most of your food? supermarket, grow yourself, farmer's market, local grocers, community supported agriculture etc?

--- On Fri, 8/8/08, david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com> wrote:

> From: david buchanan <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [MD] Gun smoke in the shape of a fake letter and not a mushroom cloud
> To: moq_discuss at moqtalk.org
> Received: Friday, 8 August, 2008, 9:22 AM
> dmb said:
> ...Obama's intelligence, humor, clarity and centerness
> are very impressive. Its a real breath of fresh air after
> nearly 8 years of drivel and lies. He was always against
> this stupid war. He's against stupidity in general.
> Yesterday he said something about the Republicans that
> really warmed my heart. He said something like, "These
> guys think its funny to mock what's true. (Properly
> inflated tires save gas.) Its like they take pride in being
> ignorant." The crowd applauded, cheered, rose to their
> feet for a standing ovation and laughed pretty hard too. ...
> 
> Platt replied:
> Thank you Paris Hilton -- like totally awesome. The Messiah
> has come. Let us all worship the Messiah. But first, make
> sure you tires are properly inflated.
> 
> dmb says:
> Yea, that was pretty much what Ian said. You guys should go
> to a drivel festival together. 
> 
> And speaking of stupidity. Notice what's being mocked
> here. According to Platt and Karl Rove's other parrots,
> Obama's popularity could hurt him in the election.
> (Thanks, Jon Stewart) When did charisma and intelligence
> become a character flaw, anyway? They think he has a messiah
> complex because he thinks there are solutions to
> "global" warming. It has nothing to do with the
> scope of the problem, they think. His concern with the rise
> in sea levels is just megalomania. 
> 
> The Paris Hilton comparison is even stupider. It
> doesn't even deserve a mocking response.
> 
> Apparently, Platt and Rush Limbaugh's other parrots
> define "elitist" as a person who does NOT take
> pride in being ignorant. When you grow up in the middle
> class and then go on to graduate from Harvard Law, win a
> Senate seat and then the Democratic Party's nomination
> for President, you are not an "elitist".
> You're just an excellent dude. He is elite in terms of
> personal accomplishments, but "elitists" are those
> who advocate "elitism". Being popular, talented
> and accomplished is not at all the same as advocating the
> return of an aristocracy or any kind of top-down government.
> Even within the parameter of debate in a democracy, his
> political stance is approximately the opposite of elitism.
> In contemporary America the major business owners are the
> closest thing we have to a ruling class. They own most of
> the country and spend quite a lot of cash in the capital to
> make sure things go their way. I wouldn't call him a
> populist but one of Obama's central concerns is to get
> that cash 
>  out of the capital on the premise that it drowns out the
> voice of the people. This is an attack on actual elitism,
> not the imaginary kind. Sadly, all this ignorant squawking
> about elitism is, in effect, an attack on meritocracy. 
> 
> I guess that's why nobody is calling John McCain an
> elitist. He's the son of an Admiral and went to an elite
> school (the US Naval Academy) and his policies favor the
> financial elite that effectively runs the country but he
> graduated third from the bottom of his class. So he's
> just a regular Joe Sixpack. Sure, his wife owns the beer
> company and he doesn't actually like beer, but hey,
> he's not too bright and he strikes a lot of macho poses
> when talking about foreigners so he's our kind of guy. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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