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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: John DiNardo and Participative Democracy
Message-ID: <786@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Jun-84 08:29:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.786
Posted: Wed Jun  6 08:29:17 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Jun-84 07:40:33 EDT
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[]
I too find John's ideal world community a bit overwhelming.
How does he propose to educate the nearly 2.5 billion
souls who cannot read or write enough to know what the
issues are?  How does everyone register their vote?  Am
I to assume we would have to use paper ballots?  A terminal
in every hut does sound a bit extreme.  I would suggest that
John take some time and spend a couple of weeks in a place
like Bed-Sty in New York or West LA or a K-Mart parking lot
and talk to people about the issues he is concerned about.
Find out just how many people have the same concerns he
has.  Better yet, just to get an idea of how informed the
populace is, find an average streetcorner ( not in a college town)
and ask the burning question of 100 passers-by "Who is the
Vice President of the United States."  I think that John
will be very much surprised at the answers he gets.

As I pointed out before concerning this issue, participative
Democracy is up to the individual.  You can't force someone to
join your parade if they are not interested.  If you do, it is
no longer participative, its totalitarianism.  By the way John,
did you vote in your local primary this spring?  Are you
active in your area political arena?  Come back to reality
John, this debate has been around for several thousand years
and it always runs into the same brick wall, human indifference
and ignorance.
T. C. Wheeler