Democracy and Tactics

national | eu | opinion/analysis Friday May 02, 2008 00:45 by Oisin - Citizen

In a democracy we do not enjoy the privilege and luxury of aristocrats, to only associate with those who do not offend us.

A strategic interest enables your ultimate goal or agenda, and strategies are generalised plans to achieve these goals. A tactic is a specific tool to advance that agenda, using what you actually have right now - not what you think you ought to have. It's unwise for a democrat to confuse long-term strategies with short-term tactics.

Democrats need to accept that people are going to disagree, and that it is not necessary for one ideology to dominate the entire consciousness of a country in order for that society to function productively and somewhat justly. It is unfortunate that sometimes radicalised people of all persuasions seem to miss this point, and instead seem content to attack each other, and by default choose to let the political platform be dominated by the "mainstream" cynical centrists, with no internal ideology other than the raw pursuit of power for their own sake.

Such cynical centrists thus have a limited core agenda, ultimately, and so are able to co-operate wonderfully when something such as the Lisbon Treaty gives them the chance to extend the potential of their personal powerbase over an entire continent, whilst removing most democratic accountability for that power.

That the various people in one organisation may have various other motives does not in itself discredit the factuality or validity of their arguments, any more than their various opposing factions not mustering huge electoral percentages, has anything to do with the validity or utility of their arguments.

People do not win votes, elections, and referenda by insisting that everyone must agree with their particular position to the exclusion of everyone else's. This does not mean that you must water down your agenda, only that you don't insist that everyone else accept it first before you can seek any common goals whatsoever.

Let your fellow toilers in the vineyard do their work in their respective fields, where they can most fruitfully employ their particular habits of thought and practice, without sabotaging their efforts. There is no point in spoiling the river upstream out of malice for your neighbour, if that will also flow down to you.