Yes to Politics

Politics, as defined in organizational theory, is a process to allocate limited resources. This definition goes a long way to explaining the huge levels of effort expended by politicians and their lobby groups supporters to gain and maintain hold of the reigns of power; the rewards are the armed power of the State itself to seize, channel and direct wealth and resources towards you and your supporters.

Unless a true revolution like the technological Singularity comes along and relieves us of the need to find or allocate resources, politics will be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future.

Politicians are keen to keep the game under their control, however. The use of electoral "gag laws" to eliminate outside participation or debate in election campaigns comes to mind, as well as the implicit alliance between the MSM and "progressive" political parties to ignore or downplay certain stories.

Given these constraints, it is difficult to imagine that people like you and I can have any influence on events. I would like to suggest otherwise. The first level of government and the one that has the most impact on your day to day lives is the Municipal government, and groups are springing up to take on local politicians and hold them to account. In Ontario, some of the groups include:

The Toronto Party

Eye on Ottawa 

Forest City Institute

Winsdsor Association of Concerned Taxpayers

While most of these groups are small, the fact that we as a people are now able to harness the power of the Internet to find like minded citizens, do research, and spread our message through both old and new media suggests that the rules of the game are indeed changing, and changing to the advantage of the citizen. The true breakthrough will occur when these groups (ant their counterparts across Canada and around the world) achieve enough critical mass to actively influence the debate on issues. (I happen to know this is true, since the Forest City Institute made a submission to the Finance Committee an the Health Tax; a submission reported in the Globe and Mail,(behind firewall) but not the London Free Press, which is the home newspaper of the FCI.

For you, the reader, look for groups like this in your home town (or found one if none exists). Get involved in the political process, since it is your scarce resources that the political class seeks to allocate. Oh, and please let us know about these groups in your area. Send links through the comments section and share with everyone. A political revolution is possible by harnessing the power of the Internet and joining forces against the political class and their status quo. 

Get involved; say "Yes" to politics.