Taiwan’s been going Referendum-crazy recently. It’…
Taiwan’s been going Referendum-crazy recently. It’s like some sort of new religion adopted by an administration who knows its days are numbered. People seem to think that referendums will resolve every single issue or debate in existance, and really, who needs a government anyway? Let the people decide everything! That’s democracy, dammit, just like in the good ol’ U.S. of A. It all has the feel of a bad used-car commercial.
George Washington spoke of the need for an enlightened populace for democracy to truly work, and the U.S. isn’t a true democracy in any case, but a representative one. Otherwise Al Gore would be president. But democracy is perceived here as much as part of American culture as McDonalds and HBO, meaning it doesn’t have to actually have any reason behind its popularity. Chen Shui-bian has spent his term trying to be all things to all people, ending of being nothing to noone because he didn’t want to offend anyone, but now his hand is being forced as the election approaches, and we’re catching more and more glimpses of what he would do if he did anything. It’s not a pretty picture. Comments about a whole new constitution, mutterings about referendums, the Mystery of The Vice Presidential Candidate, etc. have made me actually glad he spent so much time being afraid to do anything. I wish he’d keep it up, at least until he’s voted out of office and we get someone with some real cojones to back up their convictions in there. Referendums won’t solve public issues because people are 1) fickle, in that a referendum on one issue might be favorable one week and unfavorable the next, and 2) selfish, i.e. they’ll choose whatever they think might benefit them personally in the short term but damage the nation in the long term. Government by referendum, especially with a relatively unenlightened populace (and is there even such a thing as an enlightened populace?) is merely a polite term for anarchy.
Ok, enough with the ranting. I’m just cranky because I have a cold. At least I get a vote in whatever referendums they throw at us, as well as the elections next year. It could be that I’m full of shit and everything works out just peachy.
Congrats to Randall for his spot on CNN, brief though it was. Man, he’s lost a lot of weight.
Lots of stuff has been going on, but the past few days have all been Those Days. You know what I mean if you’ve ever had one of Those Days, and I’m sure you have. You’re just about to leave your house for work when Nature calls and makes you 10 minutes late. Then the subway trains at each station have all just left or are too crowded to enter. And of course on one of Those Days, your boss is always waiting for you with an urgent job and wondering why you’re late. Then, just as you’ve gotton on the subway home and are thanking some random deity that you can go home and rest because you’ve got a cold and you feel like shit, your boss will call with another emergency that requires your immediate presence as well as working late into the night and coming in on your days off.
But rest assured, Those Days can always be muddled through, and they can’t last forever, so I should have some interesting new material up soon.
