I grew up in a country where political change was happily embraced by everyone. After over forty years of communism, it was refreshing to see people having at least the illusion of choice. I grew up listening to everyone around me argue about political stuff. This guy is better that this one, that one is a thief but that other one is schooled in the USSR…The fights got really heated around election time. Two months before elections my whole family did nothing but talk politics. I was happy because they weren’t preoccupied about my math homework anymore.
A few years later, in my early teens, as the Romanian political scene got even more exciting, I caught the hysteria too. I even joined a party! But I won’t tell you which one:)
I guess I’m writing this because somehow I miss that election atmosphere. I have no clue what’s happening on the political field of my new country (it’s not so new anymore but I still feel like a FOB – fresh-off-the-boat). All these Canuck candidates look the same to me. And talk the same. Very polite. Calm. Clean. Confident. But they don’t really have a point. I think I understand the Pakistani politics better than the Canadian ones which worries me a bit.
I like watching the political drama, the debates especially. It’s because those guys give their best, they present us with a concentrated extract of their highest selves. They are as sharp as they can ever be. It’s as if they were all on coke (not cola) for a few weeks. Are people out of coke in Canada?
However, the other issue is that I don’t like being on coke. Or on any other drug, including mass political hysteria. After all, it really doesn’t matter that much who wins. Like my grandpa says: “they’re all thieves, these bastards.” So maybe the Canadian political stage is healthy for my poor soul since it doesn’t feed the political telenovelista who lives inside of it and grows like a tumor whenever it’s election time.
Still, the problem remains. Whom does the confused FOB vote for?
I can’t really say I know much about what’s happening in your politics up north.
But regardless of how uninspiring those politicians might be, just consider that at least you have a national, single-payer healthcare system, which neither of the major presidential candidates here in the U.S. would ever support. Be thankful that there isn’t a big spotlight and hoopla around your election, because U.S. elections get endless attention for candidates who never offer any real alternative. As Noam Chomsky says, two factions of the Business Party, every time.
I guess after a number of years of Stalinism, it must seem great to have supposedly free elections, no matter how much of the choice might be an illusion. But communism as a social/economic philosophy does’t at all exclude democracy (although there is always a question as to how democratic bourgeois-parliamentary democracy really is).
As you know, I myself have taken an interest in some affairs in South Asia…and have always been interested in the political developments in the Southwest Indian state of Kerala. There, when communists have been in power, democratic participation has been consciously increased. There are still hammer and sickle flags everywhere (so I hear), but it’s democratic.
As you probably know, there have often been democratic communists in Western Europe too. How close anyone has come to real communism is another question, but I think even a touch of socialism will contribute to a less brutal society than right-wing capitalism, as people are learning all over again now that the economies are crashing and misery spreads. And the European council communist movements, which greatly interested me for a while, advocated a radical and direct kind of democracy.
Oh, well, didn’t mean to clutter your comments with a long lecture on politics, so I’ll stop there.
You haven’t posted for a while, so welcome back… Looking forward to more of your messages on music and culture. As you see, I’ve turned my blog entirely into a sort of Bollywood movie blog. So, we’re not going to be matching post themes the way we did before, but I hope you’ll stop by, and I’ll check in here regularly too.
Hola Richard,
Thanks for dropping by. I have been absent from the blogging world for a while now and the reason is just lack of inspiration. I tend to get uninspired during the warm months when all my creative energy goes towards stuff like parks, beers and large areas of water. This also means that I’ll probably be posting regularly for quite a while now since things get rougher up here (“up north”:)) that down there weather wise. Just weather wise!
Yes, we’re all having fun here watching your elections. The problem is that we’re not really immune when it comes to some “bright” ideas originating in the states and very hot now because of the elechion rush . An example is the pro-life movement which is rapidly catching size here too.
I agree with you 100% on the socialist issue. I’ve become allergic to right-wing ideas lately, especially since in Europe such movements like neo-Nazism are quite fashionable. I hear that America is full of little neo-Nazi nests too. Too bad…
I also believe that a little leftist touch always brings a certain detachment from the capitalist obsessions. Aaand I’m officially on the black list in my country for writing this!
See you around, Richard!