[iDC] voting as an act of dreamtime. OLPC resolved.

[mlahey at artic.edu]

Dear Vanalyne,

your statement:

> 
> Recently, in an article that didn't get much traction outside of the Italian
> press, Tony Blair said that there is no longer a left or a right, only a
> variety of responses to globalization.   Where does that put voting in the
> nation-state version of voting?  Will the day come when we can vote for
> officials in countries to which we don't have citizenship?  
> 

Is so totally compelling that it's a real anticlimax to read your focus group
questions.  And I think if you really want to question voting, the question
here is: Shouldn't people from countries affected by our decisions (or lack
thereof) be allowed to vote in OUR elections?

as an American, the case of Clinton's bombing an aspirin factory in Senegal
comes to mind.  Americans loved him.  What about the Senegalese?  The vagaries
of our governments are breaking these small nations.  Shouldn't they be granted
some modicum of control over the situation, even if it is only a buffering or PR
effect?

I was at a conference run by John Perkins, the self-monikered "Economic Hit Man"
who destroyed economies in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.  He
describes the way his exact job with its strategies has now moved into the
corporate sphere and is a totally above the board occupation.

What shocked and disgusted me about his conference was his new ideology. "If we
already have a Fascist corporate dictatorship, let's make it the best Fascist
dictatorship the world has ever seen".  You've got to be kidding.  But his
rationale was, that we have an elaborate and costly infrastructure for sending
information and technology and culture and education in the direction of the
3rd world countries we've broken, so let's send the best of what we have.

And THAT'S THE SOLUTION to the Negroponte debate.  Eureka.  We have done enough
broadcasting, as a culture.  It's time to listen!  We've done enough invasion! 
It's time to let ourselves be invaded.  We've got to try.  The definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
 So Negroponte is ultimately just expressing our collective cultural insanity!!

Cheers!

Malian

ps Trebor, you're a true mastermind.