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http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0903/p01s01-woap.html

As you read this article about the struggle for democracy at a local level in China, think about our struggles for democracy here in Oregon, with the Ron Paul Campaign, and with the US Media. We experienced a shut down on the Monday before Super Tuesday. The Rally for the Republic was larger and more exciting than the scripted GOP Convention, but unless you read the foreign press or follow our Liberty media on the internet you would not know that much, if anything, happened in Minneapolis on September 2.

Granted, it is easier for us than for the Chinese villagers. But how much difference is there on the ground? Is the outcome really different when both candidates support war and the only question is whom and when to bomb? Is our situation so different from that of the Chinese peasant who is asked to choose between two acceptable members of the Communist Party?

As our system and totalitarian systems converge, we are finding our participatory wants thwarted unless we follow a leader who gives us change in which we are supposed to believe. Thwarted, we become less participatory, many seeing no point in following the election or voting. The establishment response in our country is to increase the Circus and promise everyone Bread. The Chinese government is struggling with participation as it comes from the side of absolutism and tries to increase citizen participation without disturbing the power structure. Their experiments with "democracy" are promising, though a controlled outcome never is in doubt.

I am coming to the conclusion that current reality is not relevant and that what we need to do is create peace, rather than oppose war, to create community rather than accept the incentives and structures that exist and are being forced upon us. We need to look to the future and develop new leaders who know how to think differently from the encrusted mental ruts within which our present leaders struggle to find solutions.