election touchy feely

[lobelia321]

Okay, it's another country, it's another time zone, but still: the USA. The world is in thrall because that is what it's like to live in times that have only one superpower. It's like being a Gaul at the time of the caesars: you look to Rome. Every election matters, of course, but somehow what the good people of Iceland or Luxemburg decide to do doesn't affect anyone else to quite the same extent as what the citizens of the U of A decide to do.

I am moved by elections. I love democracy, and I am always moved by the workings of it. Yesterday we saw some footage of the Bush and the Kerry standing in front of thousands who were waving banners and whatnot, and t'h turns to me and asks, "Are you moved by this?" But I wasn't. That's not democracy.

But then they showed a clip of a woman walking into a booth and making her crosses on the ballot paper and I choked up. Yes, I get moved to tears by the voting booth! It's the voting booth where it's all at. That little private cubicle and that moment where all that counts is one person = one vote. All the bloodshed and centuries it took to get to that one moment. I can't understand people who don't use their right to make their one little difference on that piece of paper. It's an utter privilege, and in history and still in most of the world today, it is a privilege.

Democracy isn't perfect, and it certainly isn't perfect in America but it's still the perfectest system there is. There just is no substitute. I am a universalist on that one.

I am cynical about the States these days. You have to be, if you're not a citizen of it. It's the survival strategy of the Gaul. But today I am reminded that the place is, after all and despite frequent appearances to the contrary, a democracy. I am touched by the huge voter turn-out and find the re-politicisation of Americans interesting.

---
In other news

cathexys recced The Administration by msmanna, and although I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi (after an intense fling with it during my impressionable teens, the attraction wore off, except for Neuromancer) I am a fan of slashy origfic, so I legged it on over there and although I have read only five paragraphs (!), I am already intrigued.

I have started my book! I have scores of pages of drafts and notes and chapter outlines but today I actually started it AT THE BEGINNING. Page one, paragraph one, 'Introduction', and the words 'This book is about...' I was hoping that the failed job interview would galvanise me into action. I am not quite galvanised but I am sort of partially bronzed. The mind does drift towards Dudley, Draco and Harry on top of the lighthouse in the final melodramatic climax of t'opus but the fingers (and it is they who matter!) are typing t'BOOK and not t'opus.

Also, I feel nostalgic for t'days that were peppered with t'ts. Now probably only a fraction of my flist even remembers what t't was for...

Am visiting my last two schools this week. Have grown into obsessed parent who marches into every open evening armed with eleven precise questions and a beady eye for the facilities.

But god, I am hoping that there will be another job advertised soon. I am sick of my institution. Sick, sick, sick, bored to tears with it.

I found some interesting articles today. And I've already got 25 proposals in for the conference session I'm chairing next spring, and the deadline's not for another two weeks!

A piece of amusing trivia: last week, I called the technician into my office because I couldn't get very good quality images on my new office computer (a MacOsX Mac on a stalk). He came in and said, could you pull up an image then. I went to Image Google and just typed in any old thing, in this case the word blah. Lo and behold, what was the first image that appeared? Full-frontal nude Brad in all his glory!

Try it. It's worth it, I promise. And if you're interested: I have all the naked Brads on my hard drive. Cock, balls, arse, chest, the lot. Yum.

Comments

[ex-zarah5186.livejournal.com]

I can't understand people who don't use their right to make their one little difference on that piece of paper. It's an utter privilege, and in history and still in most of the world today, it is a privilege.

I have nothing to add to this. Perfectly put.

And I just had a long chat with my American flatmate about Americans and politics and democracy. And about cheating on elections. Listening to him... Well, there are some Americans who know how to spell the word "politics," you know? And that so many of them apparently chose to cast their votes today really made me hope.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Zarah!!! So nice to hear from you! I had an American flatmate once, when I lived in Berlin. He's still a good friend and very knowledgeable about politics, both of his own country and of the world. Ah, it's fun having flatmates. (Can be a pain, too, of course but I've had some really nice ones in my time.)

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

I saw the sweetest thing yesterday while waiting forever for my ballot at the elections office. There were a few booths set up along the length of the line, and in one was a very old Vietnamese woman and her granddaughter translating each item for her. I talked to the granddaughter for a bit afterwards, and she said that her grandmother had arrived here a few years ago, got her citizenship just a few weeks ago and insisted on braving the lines and horrible weather to do her voting. Grandma stepped out of the booth just beaming, and everyone in line had big happy grins as a result.

As flawed as democracy is, I think we'd be hard-pressed to come up with something better. Because what is better than each and every citizen having at least some say in the government the influences their lives in so many ways? Most democracies, and the US especially right now, need some tweaking to make them better and more representative, but in spite of the entrenched powers that don't want to do anything, every now and then, they do have to give way and make some changes.

*wipes a sentimental tear; goes off to finish poking holes in ballot* There will be no hanging chads in this household- no sireee! Oh, and then I'm going to google "blah"

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

What's a hanging chad? I thought it was so bizarre that you had to go driving for hours to vote. And that it was 'postal', whatever that means. Because if you went to a booth, then how was it postal? The American electoral system puzzles me. The collegiate system is bizarrely quaint and the way that every state does it differently is unusual and the way the ballots are so long seems also puzzling to me. It's a sweet story about the old woman.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

A hanging chad (I forgot you weren't American) is the little piece of paper that stays stuck to the ballot if it's not punched through all the way. They became a large point of contention during the 2000 election in Florida. I don't recall if they counted as voted or the other way around. I don't know if anyone else knew!

In this state, all of the ballots for every election are mailed to us. This year, for some reason, we didn't get ours, so I had to drive a few miles to the county elections office to get replacements. At the office, they had a few voting booths for those people who wanted to vote right there.

Yes, our ballots are horribly long in a general election. We have the federal candidates, state ballot measures, state, local and county candidates and local and county ballot measures. Plus the odd judge and justice of the peace. We're a bit like Switzerland in Oregon because we mostly govern ourself with ballot measures because the state government is so horribly inept.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Thank you! All this is most enlightening.

Next question: What is a ballot measure?

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

A ballot measure is a bill that can only become law if it has been approved by voters. Hence, it needs to be on a ballot, rather than going through the regular legislative process. These usually come into being when a group of citizens decides they would like a particular law, or would like to amend the state constitution- such as banning gay marriage, grrr-they go out and gather a certain number of signatures from registered voters (usually 5 or 10 thousand or some percentage of the population). If they collect enough signatures, the measure is placed on the ballot for the next election. Sometimes, members of the state legislature propose a bill and go through a similar process. Does that make sense?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Aha. So does a ballot measure go on the ballots for every single state or just the states that submitted a petition?

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

They go on ballots for just the states that submitted the petition. So for instance, there were 11 states that submitted ballot measures banning gay marriage (and they all passed, argh!), and those laws will take effect only in those states. Now if the US Constitution is to be amended, it's a much lengthier process, but if approved is applied to all states.

I doubt the founding fathers ever envisioned a country of this size and diversity or the issues that would be raised. They're probably still rolling over in their graves because slaves were emancipated and given the right to vote. Oh, and women too! What is this world coming to?

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

All the states that put gay marriage on a ballot measure passed a law against it? I didn't know that! so it was the anti-lobby that proposed this measure??

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, although Oregon was the state with the smallest majority, something like 54 percent in favor. I know that here, it was put on the ballot by the anti-lobby, in response to county commisioners in Portland allowing gay marriage. Unfortunately, the commisioners pursued this in a very secretive fashion, which ticked off a lot of people who might otherwise have been in favor. The Portland Metro area (where I live) is generally considered to be very liberal and out of touch with the rest of the state. Of course, the majority of the state's people live here, also, so I was a bit surprised the thing passed. The whole thing has been a mess from day one.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Fuck.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

And not in a good way.

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

Hee. That was what I thought!

gauled

[office-ennui.livejournal.com]

i deliberately went to see the machinist tonight so i wouldnt be able to watch the election. two friends of mine left messages in tears and one so angry her voice broke. i am trying to make myself not jump out the window by re-reading your post because i feel like there is no hope left but then i think: canada. america is a wasteland.

Re: gauled

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Two things.

One, I feel good because this time around the Americans actually seem to have voted for the guy they're going to get. They want him in.

Two, I feel bad because this means that there are no more excuses and that yes, every second American walking by on the street voted for that man.

They say every state gets the government they deserve. In the case of the US, though, it's the whole world that gets him as well. Difficult times.

Re: gauled

[brightest-blue.livejournal.com]

They say every state gets the government they deserve.

Heh. I just said the very same thing to someone else tonight. My concern was not just for the 49 percent who truly didn't want him but for the rest of the world as well.

Re: gauled

[office-ennui.livejournal.com]

that is what makes me so sick - it isnt just me that has to live with bush for four years but everyone else! even among other americans it is the african americans i feel the most fear for - when the draft starts it will be them first and i think there were like 100 african americans who voted for bush. doctors without boarders just pulled from iraq today saying they felt it was too dangerous for their staff - they stayed in bosnia - my government did that. hundreds of thousands of iraqi women and children died because of my government. bush i can hate but the people who voted for bush i hate more - it is so absolutely disgusting. hopefully a civil war will start here - of course that would be after hundreds of thousands of more people die (hello vietnam part 2). i cant appologize enough for my country - it is hopeless.

Re: gauled

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Well, what to say? *throws up hands*

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

You know, I never understood the t't thing. I think I thought it was a secret masonic signal to your sorority on Jupiter or something. Mind you, I'm fairly sure I thought a 'hanging chad' was a kind of fish. (Isn't there a fish called 'chad'? Or is it 'shad'? I'm fairly sure there's 'shad' in Edith Wharton somewhere...) What can I say? My day was full of weeping Americans in my classes, I'm distracted.

You started your book at the beginning??? I'm not sure that's allowed. I'm looking at mine in first proofs at the moment, and screaming over mistakes in the index. I want a subservient male personal secretary to take care of such things.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I didn't start the book at the beginning. The beginning is what I've worked myself around to after 1 1/2 years of faffing about with chapters and bits and bobs and drafts and bullet points.

Can I borrow your male subservient secretary?

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's all right then. I just thought you were violating the unwritten rules by skipping the faffing and bullet points. (What is it about bullet points at the start of a project? Is a somewhat off-the-wall idea given a certain business-like air by a well-placed bullet point?)

Re. the secretary, certainly. I'll have him washed and sent to your office immediately.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Don't bother about the washing. Just send him on over.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

T't, m'dear, stems from my previous little evil fandom wot I done founded together with badgermonkey. The fandom is now sadly defunct but it was centred in t'north and hence necessitated copious swallowings of t't and txtings with t't in them (and was also useful because saved on characters in the character-limited world of txt-slash). *gg*

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Now all is clear. Scary, but clear. Baby!Dom looks fabulously gormless. Gabby Hope's story about pissing!Dom and white-fingered! Mr Wainthropp is curiously compelling. Has any fandom in which you've ever had a hand not taken great delight in bodily fluids??? (Thinking most of 'The Orc's Tongue' which I came across recently...) Honestly, you are like some kind of LJ case-study in Kristevan abjection!!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Honestly, you are like some kind of LJ case-study in Kristevan abjection!!
Meep! (And I haven't typed that in a long time!) Can I quote this on my userinfo page??

And you actually read some of the Wainthropp fic?? *is very, very impressed*

Demelza and I were very purist, I have to admit. We only ever admitted one OTP into our heads, and that was Geoffrey/Mr Wainthropp, and they had to address each other as 'Mr Wainthropp' and 'my lad', and Mr W had to wear woolly cardigans and make hotpot and Geoffrey needed to go to t'reference library a lot. (And because at that time I was on leave and in the university library a lot, this became something of a catchphrase: 't reference library.) Oh but lord, it was an insiderish fandom...! I used to txt Demelza Wainthropp-slash in the library loos. Heady days.

Btw, I have some Wainthropps on video. They are a strange delight but really only watchable with one's finger on the forward button to get to the Geoff/Mr W bits. In one episode, Geoffrey and Mr W have a manly talk; it is all so phenomenally slashy and canon!!!

Anyway, I've come over all unnecessary now, thinking upon those days...

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Feel free to make whatever use amuses you of my (sub-)Kristevan musings.

Yes, I'm still marking, therefore I read a Wainthropp fic. I'm not responsible for my own actions when I mark. (I tried to follow your link to Thamiris, by the way, as I don't know her, but think it was f-locked...) A second year has just written the following:

'Gothic offers a feminist critique of society, which I will now discuss ineptly.' Snort.

Am jealous of your past leave. The tragedy of planning to leave this job at the end (t' end?) of t'year, is that I'd have had a sabbatical for the academic year 2006-7. Sigh.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Remind why you are planning to leave at t'end of this year? (Well done on t't, by t'way.)

which I will now discuss ineptly.
*Cackles* What a true self-assessment, however!!

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Well, because my home is in a different country to my job, involving me spending most of the academic year living away from my partner, our friends, our life; accumulating two sets of household bills, more frequent flyer miles than you could shake a stick at, and a phone bill the size of a small country's GDP. I could go on to include the various stress-related health problems that permanently living with one foot in another country involves, and the fact that three years of this is quite enough, but won't ...

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

But why are you leaving before you've found another job?

And are you now moving to this halcyon country completely? So when will I get to meet you f2f?

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

Well, I have until the end of the academic year to find another job, but have decided to leave whether I do or not. I've spent three years being utterly miserable, having put my life, relationship, mental and physical health behind a job which I like - but not enough for that sum to balance out.

England's been home since the mid-1990s. I regard my weekdays in this country as an inconvenient interruption to my life there. Meet me in December!

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do hope you get a job!!! And I am looking forward to meeting you!! Is there a pic of you on the net anywhere? I've learned to look at pics before meeting f2f. *g* There are some of me floating around; if you haven't seen them, I'll find where they are.

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

As do I, as starving or going on the tills at Tesco with a doctorate seem equally unattractive options.

Is your photo check so you'll recognise people when you meet under railway station clocks wearing DUDLEY ROOLZ badges, or simply to weed out the obvious drooling maniacs flaunting their Max Nordau-type physiognomies at the camera?

I have a rooted objection to being photographed, and while my departmental site has photos of all of my colleagues on our research pages (admittedly many of them looking panicked, as though photographed running down the corridor from the dept administrator with a digital camera), mine is determinedly faceless.

I look quite normal though, in a slightly cross way.

[lobelia321.livejournal.com]

so you'll recognise people when you meet under railway station clocks wearing DUDLEY ROOLZ badges
Yup, that's the one. (Who's Max Nordau again? A Bad Male Modernist?)

No, I will tell you about my pic policy! I've met quite a few people from online now and I've learned that there are wise ways to go about it, and one of these ways is to look at a pic of someone before you meet them. Ideally months in advance but a day will do... This is because I find that I build up a mental image of what someone looks like in my head, and it tends (with me) to be quite a powerful image. Seeing the person for the first time can be rather unsettling, and I'd rather be unsettled in front of a pic than in front of the real-live-and-flesh person. So it's a way of getting that unsettled-feeling out of the way before I meet the person to avoid embarrassment when one just wants to concentrate on face-to-face fun!

I think I've got pretty good at weeding out the Max Nordau types (whoever he is) before I get to the meeting-in-the-flesh stage! Though you may yet arrive wielding an axe under your deceptively innocent DUDLEY ROOLZ badge... *g*

Do you not find this? Or have you not met that many online people?

Some pics of me are to be found here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lazlet/93825.html

[childeproof.livejournal.com]

*is totally unsettled by seeing you in the flesh and has to go and bang head against nearby wall*

No, seriously, what you're saying sounds sensible, but I have no photographs of myself to offer - I'm entirely with the tribal people who savaged missionaries' cameras. Photographs steal my soul!

(Max Nordau was a late 19thc follower of Lombroso's theories of criminal physiognomy and wrote a social darwinist tome called 'Degeneration' (I think 'Entartung' in German?) about criminals being essentially degenerate throwbacks due to their heredity - fed into nazi ideology later.

So definitely Bad and at least proto-Modernist.)