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August 16, 2004
Democracy Matters
I just realized why the title "Democracy Matters" sounded so familiar. Golden State Warriors basketball player, Adonal Foyle, has a foundation called "Democracy Matters." I believe I'm going to keep the blog URL, but I should probably at least change the title of the blog to avoid confusion. Doh! What makes this strange is that I thought I Googled that title last night to make sure that nobody was using it. Very strange.
I had planned to blog about Foyle's Democracy Matters a few months ago. I was intrigued by an interview I'd read with Foyle in AlterNet and appreciated his commitment to getting young people involved in politics and his support of progressive causes. I'll certainly provide students with a link to the real Democracy Matters because he's doing some interesting work and talking about democracy in a way that I find valuable.
Any suggestions for a new title?
Update: I've tentatitively decided to change the blog title to Rhetoric and Democracy, at least for tonight. Hopefully I'll think of something better tomorrow.
Posted by chuck at August 16, 2004 8:23 PM
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Comments
Chuck,
If the course is centred upon the discourse of electoral politics (as it transpires in the media and in blog writing), is the course focus then a bit narrower than "Rhetoric and Democracy"?
Is this a "Persuasion and Elections" course?
Posted by: Francois Lachance at August 17, 2004 11:59 AM
Franocis, that might be a good way of characterizing it. I do plan to take studnets out of the din of the echo chamber and hopefully find more nuanced arguments. But we'll be watching the first debate as a class, and the class may also discuss the Republican convention as well.
I'm also going to track down other kinds of arguments, including satires from The Onion and The Daily Show, to discuss how they function. More insomnia last night, so I'm having a hard time focusing...
Posted by: chuck at August 17, 2004 12:38 PM
I like "Rhetoric and Democracy" -- more, in fact, than "Democracy Matters."
You can even abbreviate it nicely to R&D after a few weeks...
Posted by: Amardeep at August 18, 2004 10:40 AM
Good point. I'll probably stick with "Rhetoric and Democracy" at this point--it conveys both themes of the course rather nicely.
I had noticed the acronym "RAD," but that just sounded too much like a composition teacher desperately trying to be cool.
"R&D" is much better.
Posted by: chuck at August 18, 2004 11:20 AM
Is Democracy being used as A Weapon of Mass Destruction:
Weaponized Freedom
Wholesale democracy sold as retail
Freedom is incapacitated locked in jail
Liberty in the layaway without bail
War is the prostitute on the campaign trail
Democracy for sale---Democracy for sale
Weaponized free-enterprise, impeached democratized
Imperialism to no avail
Bi-partisan politicians pimping people’s entrails
Democracy for sale---Democracy for sale
Terrorism merchandised to the highest bidder
Political policy a bi-partisan stripper
Free-trade gets paid to get laid
Open door policy is the capitalist’s charade
Civil-War ain’t civil, just barbaric
Collateral casualties are esoteric
Crimes against humanity all so generic
Warmongers copulate war but never bemoan
They pledged alliance to the scull and bones
Democracy for sale—Democracy for sale
Weaponized free-enterprise, impeached democratized
Imperialism to no avail
Bi-partisan politicians pimping people’s entrails
COPYRIGHT 2004
JOSEPHINE DIXON-BANKS
The Bill, For The Bill of Rights
The political-democracy picking the aristocracy
Like the slaves picked cotton
We the people are totally forgotten
We the people are totally forgotten
Poor people pay the ultimate price
Coersive persuasion –a mind control device
Willingly give your life as a sacrifice
Then die for a cause that violates human rights laws
Economic sanctions aimed at the poor
Carpet bombing civilians desecrates laws of war
When government becomes God, for economic gains
The Bill of Rights wanes, wanes, wanes
Zero tolerance for violence is galore, in the times of war
The whole world saturated with the Blood of The Poor
The cost of freedom, war’s consummate whore
Business interests favor war, as it’s savior
COPYRIGHT 2004
JOSEPHINE DIXON-BANKS
Political Picnic
Harvest time in an election year
League of legal lies litigating fear
Processed political peer pressure programs the volunteer
Prison camp indoctrination makes it’s premiere
Psychological nit-picking produces thought reform
Cult-like recruitment, the phenomenal brainstorm
Bureaucratic mind, designed attitudes to conform
Regulated, gun to yo head mentality, the norm
Rape a mind, pick a weapon of control
Systematic extermination of free thought
The civilian death toll
Pick, The pledge of allegiance to human rights, Rationality
Life, liberty, justice, equality for all, the only, Nationality
Pick, The declaration of all human beings are born and
Ordained free
Citizens of the world…not a detainee
Harvest time to reassign the mind
Misconception, stolen election
Political orientation the miseducation
Regulated participation, social sublimation
Pathological prevarication proclamation
It takes an act of congress to define a, word
Military might maintains the handcrafted boy herd
COPYRIGHT 2004
JOSEPHINE DIXON-BANKS
Posted by: Josephine Dixon-Banks at October 7, 2004 11:33 AM