I agree with Damien, it’s not an either/or situation. My post was not dealing with Civil Disobedience which I agree is ultimately more effective. My post wasn’t about trying to get people to vote to stop Winston, rather to realise that their silent apathy is serving his interests. In this case, less votes cast = each vote has more influence. I was simply encouraging people who cared to consider dulling the influence of Winston’s supporters.

I can appreciate where you are coming from and to an extent I agree however this is an MMP environment and it’s not as simple a power analysis as you have outlined in your comment.

Firstly, Winston aint in charge so ‘the powers that be’ aren’t going to be bothered about manouvering him anywhere. BUT unless you’re out there educating the public about what this man is really standing for, people ARE getting sucked in by this bullshit. There are a whole heap of people out there who genuinely think that Winston is ‘a lovely man who stands up to all those nasty politicians and tells them what he thinks’. Whereas the reality is that the man is about the shrewdest politician in parliament. He only plays the politician game, doubt he’s even got a fucking soul.

Secondly, there is a difference between fighting a system and keeping it in check so it doesn’t take over your life completely. There’s a lot to be said for doing both at the same time. Know thine enemy, so to speak.

Now I could sit here and complain about ‘the system’ and how it’s all corrupt, or I can get off my ass and do something about it. I chose the latter, starting with sharing the responsibility for educating my community, secondly by working to undermine and stop Racist bullshit. I do this in many ways, but I’m obviously not going to spell it all out here. This site is just one vehicle for promoting social change.

Don’t get me wrong, an anarchist revolution would be fun, I’m sure. However I don’t see it happening in the next three years, and I would quite like to keep living in this country in the meantime. And to be honest, I’m more interested in evolution. Going forwards is always more interesting than going round in circles.

Hmm, there are bigger issues here and I’m wokring on some writing at the moment to address these issues, watch this space…

One more thing, I’m assuming that was a quote at the end of your comment, who said it? (out of interest)

And Rich, sorry, that was awfully stereotypey of me. Please forgive that, I was rather wound up when I wrote this original post :o)

i’d disagree. in new zealand we actually have a pretty damn good representative system. note that we have a transsexual mp and a dreadlocked mp. and a female prime minister.

it’s also not an either/or situation. civil disobedience may or may not have a larger effect but civil disobedience combined with voting for the people who you think are the least crap is better than just civil disobedience.

2c.