Power is in the hands of an unelected few....

"Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy,"

A quote by George W. Bush concerning the elections in Iran recently. I don't think I have to even further comment on the quote. But if I didn't just tell you who it was by and what it concerned, you may have thought it just the opposite. An article on BBC World News states that Iranians turned out in droves, against adversity in many cases, to cast their votes. Where is passion like that in America for Bush to criticize?

Recently, I was asked a provocative question. Someone asked me what I would do if I found that our government flat out lied. After the initial shock of finding someone that doesn't presume the govrenment always lies and acidentally lets truth slip trough occisionally, I began formulating my response.

Thomas Jefferson said,

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience [has] shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce [the people] under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

The question I am left to answer as a responsible citizen is "What is the tolerance limit?" I alluded, albeit in a very circuitous manner, to the process by which we are duped, in my entry Boiling Frogs. The process of boiling frogs is how we become accustomed to the transgressions bestowed on us. For those that are not familiar with boiling frogs, the old addage says,

If you want to boil a frog, you can't just drop it into a pot of boiling water; the frog will get burned and jump out in reaction. Instead, put the frog in cool comfortable water to put it at ease. Then over time, increase the flame. By the time the complacent frog realizes the water is too hot, it is too late for it to react.

The tolerance limit is what we individually must determine for ourselves. Then we must work collectively to have our voices heard.

The bureaucracy is a circle from which one cannot escape. Its hierarchy is a hierarchy of knowledge. The top entrusts the understanding of detail to the lower levels, whilst the lower levels credit the top with understanding of the general, and so all are mutually deceived. --Karl Marx

So how do we get our voices heard? How do we measure our success? Well, we've started the process already on this blog, and many like it. Several times there has been such impassioned debates about the core topics and motivations that face us all as members of the American society. We have shown that many of us are not complacent frogs. Also, we can see how our voices are being heard concerning the non-existant "Exit Plan" for the Iraqi war. Bush refuses to create one. But the topic has gained momentum enough to come to the forefront of social concern.

We need to know who we vote for, their integrity. We may even be inclined to join local politics like an old friend of mine hopes to. Take matters into our own hands in a pointed, peaceful, and noticeable way. Act on what you believe in. I am in Iraq, in the Army for just those reasons. I never considered it a great act of patriotism, I consider my choice a simple act of living how I speak. We must bring politics back to the political process and not have it be based on celebrity. Politicians racing toward the middle give voters little choice and disaffect the most citizens. We need a polarized, multi-party system based on plans for action, not neverending military actions and beaurocracies. Politicians should have no outside sources of wealth, no personal investments, no positions within corporations. Politics should be a life of consignment so that personal interest is not a factor and corporations can't amass power behind the curtain.

Karl Marx suggest this as our measuring stick,

Anyone who knows anything of history knows that great social changes are impossible without feminine upheaval. Social progress can be measured exactly by the social position of the fair sex, the ugly ones included.