What motivates the occupy movement and now the student rallies in Quebec?. Neither clearly articulate what they seem to want. I think they are acting this way because they see themselves—indeed all of us—as caught up in a hopeless quagmire..
Ever since some greedy, supposedly financial geniuses, forced us into a complete economic collapse a few years, ago, throwing most all nations into heavy debt, we taxpayers are being asked to do without needed services and our workers are being forced to take less pay for their work. Why, many ask, are we—who had nothing to do with causing this collapse,–expected to bear the brunt of its cost?.
And especially since it has now become evident that governments cater more to the multinationals than they do to the voting public, thus essentially bypassing democratic rule.
But how do we get out of this straight jacket? Few feasible solutions have been suggested so far but more and more people are simply opting out of this new status quo and we better hope it does not spread to the point of chaos. Politicians, if they are smart, better heed this potentially growing problem before it gets out of hand –people want their vote back
Unfortunately, the polarization of parties in the U.S. has been imported to Canada and the only way out that I can see to get our vote back is to insist on some form of proportional representation. Mind you, this proposal will be bitterly rejected by the existing parties since polarization means they must focus almost exclusively on ‘getting ‘ their opponents rather than considering the welfare of the voting public ,so it will not be easy .
But it is our only hope to stave off the growing disenchantment with democratic rule and its disturbing consequences.