Elections in Sweden

[offense74]

Ok so we have elections here tomorrow and the ongoing debate is of course how the politicians will fix my life with other peoples money. Nothing new there, it's what politicians do.

 

The thing that pisses me off is that none of them in the duration of 1 month or so have talked about personal responsibilities. Least of all the greens.

I believe that we will NEVER turn global warming around if people don't realise the situation and act according to the problem. I was almost up and screaming when the green leader said this:

"If you're children asks you in the future what you did for the environment you can tell them that you voted green!"

They also stated that because of the raised taxes on petroleum we now see more and more people driving more environmently friendly cars as if people wouldn't care unless the government forced them to.

 

I have described this problem before. The politicians say that they are on top of things and we needn't worry. The dangers of this is that people stop caring and leave the problems to the politicians to solve and thus take no personal responsibilities. It's always nice if someone else can fix the problems, right?

[Igor Vovchanchyn]

And Sweden is one of the more enlightened countries!

 

The problem (as far as I can tell) is just that might makes 'right'. The fact that we want the enviroment to be protected is beaten by the fact that corporations have more power than we do.

 

But I agree, blaming corporations misses the fact that responsability lies with the majority as well as the heads of companies.

I myself am right now, by mere membership, supporting all of my nations actions.

 

The problem though is that I'm not willing to reject everything and become an eco-warrior.

I think the most practical way to help the enviroment is to make healthiness cool. Like the hippies but more so.

 

Personally I have a rather pessimistic take on things anyway. Theres no perfect world, suffering, violence is a part of life etc. As far as I can see the best thing for the enviroment will be lots of people dying. Which perhaps climate change will achieve.

 

Though I'm sure everyone here is more educated and experienced on this front than me.

[Kathryn]

People don't like to hear about personal responsibility, so I can see that it would not make for good pre-election rhetoric (if you want to be elected).

 

It's a sad truth, but I think what we need in our political leaders is more of a benevolent dictatorship: someone who says "you WILL recycle," "we will NO LONGER subsidize the animal-product and tobacco industry," "auto manufacturers MUST create environmentally benign (if not beneficial) autos by the year 2010," "power companies WILL derive their energy from renewable resources," And to Hades with any special interest groups or big companies that don't agree!

 

People don't like to hear what THEY should or shouldn't do, which I think it one reason President Carter didn't get reelected.

[CollegeB]

Offense man we've got the same thing here in a few years. It's a shame so many people believe in government, but thats easier to do than say "Yeah i'm part of the problem, i'll do something about that."

 

"The state, since it acts by compulsion, cannot inculcate real virtue in anyone but only a hypocritical and ersatz kind. One can compel action but not belief. No wonder then that as the scope of the state has grown, patriotism has degenerated into warmongering and religion has succumbed to politicization and scandal. The moral muscles atrophy in the absence of personal responsibility. That some self-identified conservatives cannot seem to tell the difference between self-responsibility and compulsion, or between the standards of civil society and those of the state, demonstrates just how thorough the process of crowding out genuine virtue with the coercive counterfeit actually is."

from:http://www.amconmag.com/2005_03_14/article2.html

[offense74]

If higher taxes would mean more compassion I would be so for it. But it doesn't. It's all fake. As government grows people get more and more scared. Who is there to rescue us? The state, of course.

 

Alot (if not most) problems that we face today could be fixed by regular people with compassion but instead we leave the caring and the compassion to the government because it's hard to deal with.

 

To me it's painfully obvious that politicians won't fix global warming, poverty, animal welfare (or rights), equal rights and opportunities for all humans no matter what color or sex they have, etc.

They keep saying that they can fix it though, so people hide under their blanket and let others fix the problems.

 

I AM positive , really . Right now it's just too many politicians promising shit they won't deliver

[joelbct]

I think large government is wasteful and dangerous, probably more so than large corporations... In fact government is like the supercorporation that can write its own laws, enact its own taxes and more and more taxes, and has a virtual monopoly, no competitors but other nations...

 

And here in the States, the Republicans were avowedly the party of limited government, until they gained control of the Senate, House, and the Presidency, and now they have unleashed a monstrosity upon us, which most people are all too unaware of... HUGE spending increases, ever increasing government payroll, MORE and more regulation, this atrocious war, and a prescription drug plan with an unfunded liabililty of 70 trillion dollars over the next century...

 

So that's why I plan to move to Canada, as soon as global warming makes it feasible...

 

-Joel