Why are we not fighting the powers.

[cannabis-sam]

Ok so who's not happy about our government I guess every single person on this site. We're unhappy with the drug laws, the denial of our basic freedoms and our increasing move to being a police state.

Theres what 300 odd of these cunts in office and about 60 million people in this country, I can't say I've met anyone who is actually happy with the system or our government. Now why isn't everybody marching into parliment and taking control of what is rightfully ours. Why aren't we taking the power back. If we all worked together we could easily overthrow these fascist bastards but no one seems that concered. It wouldn't be that hard if everyone worked together.

We need to make a fucking difference but we're all sitting around on our arses doing shit all. Lets take back control start a fucking revolution before we're too controlled and subdued to think for ourselves;

Lets take the fucking power back.

[Goldy]

I was thinkn about this the other day. When alcohol was prohibited there were revolts etc and so they decided it wouldnt work anymore? whats up with that anyway. But SWIM would do is to spread the word, pass it on sorta thng, for a worldwide movement. "take the power back" Its about fkn time guys/girls. 20th April? 420. evry country in the world. get it really really publicised..

[geezaman]

SWIM really wants to agree, anarchism sounds brilliant, but...
Has anyone got any better ideas than what we have at the moment?.... if enough people agreed with said better ideas it would have already happened.

Is SWIM happy with the government?, Well he is happier than when Blair was PM.

SWICannabis-sam is right we don't have the power we should, decisions have been taken out of the hands of elected officials and so accountability is lost.

On the upside though organizations like Wikileaks are (i would hope) making governments and businesses alike slightly uncomfortable about past shady dealings, and think twice before entering into dodgy things that will never(?) enter the public eye
Peace
Geezaman

[Junkhead23]

SWIM thinks an uprising will happen in this country when they take away all of our civil liberties. Its already happening

[zera]

I cannot think of a historical example where violent revolution has led to an increase in the welfare of a nation. From the French to the Russian to the Iranian, revolutions have a nasty habit of resulting in tyranny and violence. Even what I consider the best violent revolution, the American, basically resulted in an incredibly violent and disruptive war, that after a brief period of decentralized democracy resulted in the Federalists taking control and establishing almost an exact replica of the British colonial government. The violence and destruction is never worth the cost.

Drugs are illegal because of populist hysteria. If you want this police state to come to an end, the one place you definitely shouldn't be looking to is the mob. The era of drug legality occurred when either monarchs were in control or democracies were indirect and unrepresentative, and ended when popular and direct democracy took hold.

This may sound heretical on these boards, but I think the direction we want to go is towards stronger, less representative government. There are incredibly compelling economic reasons to legalize drugs, from tax revenues to the cost of the drug war to the loss of economic productivity in ghetto neighborhoods. This is counter-balanced by incredibly compelling political reasons not to legalize, the third rail in American politics.

I think any rationally self-interested government with unlimited power and no threat of being overthrown would always set drugs as legal, because the economic reasons would increase its profit. When you change that government such that it has more reason to be fearful of its people throwing it out (whether by ballot box or bayonet) then it becomes more rational to "do something about drugs" because going against the mass hysteria decreases your chance of remaining in power to collect that increased profit.

Thus on the margin, I think we should be pushing for less democracy and less people power, and more privatization/profit-based government, unchallenged control, and even outright corruption a la Boss Tweed at high levels (what is corruption if nothing more than secured access to tax revenues by officials in power).

I know this sounds highly paradoxical and ludicrous, but at least consider it.

[Fat Cop]

A 10 Year Old Boy Declares War on the World.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGxBizeiL3s

[geezaman]

SWIZera makes some interesting points the first few of which SWIM would agree with, but the latter of which SWIM really does not, at least for his location on the globe.

SWIM does not think drug legalization is the way forward at least for the UK.
A higher availability and easier access to drugs, would take (perhaps over a few years) many people currently employed out of work via either through addiction or through being sacked (SWIM is assuming drug tests at work would become a regular occurrence because many jobs would be highly dangerous if an employee were intoxicated). Add to this addictions to drugs such as coke, meth, heroin, that would become larger and larger until the user could not afford to sustain the habit and you get an explosion of crime.
Those who could afford would probably use in much higher quantities resulting in health problems, and this would not necessarily decrease but just add to illness and NHS costs caused by existing taxed drugs such as alcohol and cigarettes.

SWIM has encountered few but at the same time too many people around the midlands who (joking aside) seemed to be genuinely mad or deranged and prime candidates for being tranq gunned and taken away by the men in white coats, SWIM could only see a rapid increase in this if drugs were legal and available to all.

As it stands many in UK society consider drugs wrong, Many don't have access to them, and those that do often only have access to a small variety at any one time, and due to the risks or jail etc are cautious about their use. SWIM wishes he wasn't breaking the law and would love a greater variety at his finger tips, but is happy to forgo both to know that every 5th person he meets wont try and puke on him, rob him, stab him, hug him, or have a paranoid fit at him.

Peace
Geezaman

[frederico02]

if your talking about governments in general and their laws then nobody is ever going to be 100% happy because our goverments try and i say try becasue really some of the laws are crap and im for legalization but they try to make our society fair . you have to work to get money , u spend money on your desierd product and you use it to your hearts desire providing that its so called safe and legal . some laws just dont change because people are generally too lazy to care and thats the truth . if it doesnt affect people drasticly then they wont care , its simple . with drugs its slightly different i guess . the truth is conciled from us . and scientific evidence has been discarded like a empty coke can on the street . the only way to change these laws is by a mass public upraw or get your man in power . and even if your man is in power he has to get all his mp's in the seats so that they can make the majority vote when laws are being passed . public uprising has been seen as the best though , a good demonstration is rights for women in the 19th centry i think ... in the uk . at the end of the day , its the public that can change our country if there are enough people that support the discious , its how we humans have done it for hundreds of years ( the majority vote ) in some cases thats more like the majority of people supporting an idea like big protests and marches etc .