#vote #chomsky #elections #democracy #politics #book
If you are bored and disgusted by politics and don’t bother to vote, you are in effect voting for the entrenched Establishments of the two major parties, who please rest assured are not dumb, and who are keenly aware that it is in their interests to keep you disgusted and bored and cynical and to give you every possible reason to stay at home doing one-hitters and watching MTV on primary day. By all means stay home if you want, but don’t bullshit yourself that you’re not voting. In reality, there is no such thing as not voting: you either vote by voting, or you vote by staying home and tacitly doubling the value of some Diehard’s vote.
― David Foster Wallace, Up, Simba!
#quote #elections
Election politics is very much a type of marketing, and politicians are starting to use personalized marketing’s capability to discriminate as a way to track voting patterns and better “sell” a candidate or policy position.
Psychological manipulation—based both on personal information and control of the underlying systems—will get better and better. Even worse, it will become so good that we won’t know we’re being manipulated.
#elections #politics #psychology #surveillance #manipulation #facebook #google #tilt
To all folks out there in Diaspora who are interested in what the hell is going on in #Armenia. It may help to imagine situation to some extent. This #movie have been made by #documentary director #Ara-Shirinian. It’s long, there are 6 parts in it, not a high quality footage, but it has English #subtitles, that’s why I share it. It tells a #story about #epic #fail to #change the #system by #peaceful #revolution, without #force. Authorities used #army against #demonstrants which is against #constitution. It happened back in #2008, but I believe nothing really changed since then. #Authorities even gained more strength these days and are able to show that we have more #free-speech and everything is okay. So this movie is called #Change. As we got to know later from #wikileaks West did not support the change here. It was ok to trade #democracy for the authorities they can better manipulate. Nobody needs really independent authorities here.
part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CPy311xwSg
part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKJlwmw3lYY
part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf9W8FhqMOk
part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOm_3uOnmPM
part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTAN_ZVZP9k
part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkpuubUbx3M
I know another very interesting movie, but I cannot find a version with subtitles. #politics #Armenia #political-prisoners #prisoners #freedom #democracy #elections #history #army #protest #Yerevan #fraud #falsifications #force
The final report from the international election mission, also due in April, is expected to make uncomfortable reading for the president. Nonetheless, this is a less troubled start than the early days of Sargsyan's first term. On 1 March 2008, ten people were killed and scores injured during protests over alleged electoral fraud. Robert Kocharian, the outgoing president and Sargsyan's old friend, declared a three-week state of emergency, and the parliament passed a law curbing public meetings.
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/imported/last-of-the-mohicans/76656.aspx #armenia #barevolution #elections #fraud #protest #march1 #2008 #2013 #armvote13
Immediately, it transpired that #Raffi was hovering up the votes. This caused some surprise with the local participants. Indeed, it became somewhat embarrassing in that virtually every vote was for Raffi. Every odd time, a vote came out for the incumbent, there was a slight laugh from some of the locals. On and on, it continued with Raffi getting virtually all of the votes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iOInWTzI7w
#armvote13
English from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iOInWTzI7w#t=5m30s
#armenia #karabagh #elections #fraud #democracy #armenian-genocide #freedom #law #constitution #armenian #raffi-hovhannisian
This is already an old #tradition, that #OSCE #observers acknowledge #faked #elections as #pure, #transparent and #democratic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wezm_DRkozs
The OSCE observers walked out of the hall when Nazaryan took the podium to read the statement on behalf of the citizens of #Armenia.
Dear political tourists, we have had enough of your efforts to legitimize the #fraudulent elections.
The recent presidential election in Armenia, when compared to previous presidential elections, has registered one step forward and three steps backwards, two steps to the right and a half step to the left. In a word, they haven’t corresponded to the RA Constitution, to the demands of the Election Code as well as international standards.
The elections have proceeded against the backdrop of proposed reforms to the Election Code by the parliamentary opposition that were rejected by the ruling majority. Even though international and domestic observers, rights defenders and the opposition raised concerns, especially regarding glaring inaccuracies in the voter rolls, after the parliamentary election, nevertheless, the ruling authorities did nothing to fix the problem before this recent presidential election.
In essence, last year’s parliamentary election and yesterday;’ presidential election took place on the same legal-normative basis.
Of note is the fact that in the February 18 presidential election none of Armenia’s primary political opposition forces either nominated their own candidate or supported any of the nominated candidates. I refer to the Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, the AR and the Free Democrats. This is ample proof that the election was not truly competitive.
The fact that none of the primary opposition groups refused to nominate their own candidate or support any other candidate running, points to the deep level of mistrust of citizens and political forces regarding the electoral process.
Thus, the opposition forces in the parliament, from the outset, have labelled the presidential election as a farce and a show, since as previously noted, the ruling majority squashed the passage of election reforms proposed by the opposition prior to the election period.
Even though on the surface there was the appearance that important democratic freedoms were being safeguarded during the campaign, including the right to run a free campaign, in reality, the campaign was noteworthy by its competitive inequality in favour of the candidate of the regime. In particular, administrative resources and powers were put into the service of the latter. This was accomplished via pressure brought to bear on state and public employees to attend campaign events of Serzh Sargsyan and to vote in his favour.
The election campaign did not proceed peacefully. Violence was inflicted on candidate Paryur Hayrikian. The man was shot. Another candidate, Andreas Ghoukasyan, staged a hunger strike to protest the electoral process which he labelled a mere show. The press covered cases of violence even on Election Day.
The campaign also stood out by its lack of political and individual professionalism. Candidates employed the crudest of language and public relation stunts. For example, the various incidents that took place during the campaign conducted by the regime’s candidate were widely mocked by large segments of society. As a consequence, citizens tended not to take the election process seriously.
On Election Day, polling precincts were transformed into theatrical stages where citizens showed their attitude to the process. The press and social internet sites were full of ballots invalidated by voters who drew caricatures on them. They drew images of figures from the plant and animal world, images lifted from fairy tales and television cartoon characters. In one precinct, a voter literally ate his ballot as a sign of protest. It significant to note that according to official statistics, the number of invalidated ballots came in third place.
Reports of duplicate voting, ballot stuffing, bribes, and substitute voting and other scams were raised throughout the election itself.
Thus, yesterday’s presidential election in Armenia can be described as yet another normal appalling election.
Dear political tourists, we’ve had enough of you legitimizing the fraudulent election. You are trampling those democratic values that you yourselves have broken.
Հեղինակների համոզմամբ, բարգավաճ և աղքատ երկրների տարբերությունը բացատրվում է ոչ թե նրանց աշխարհագրական դիրքով, բնական հարստություններով, լավ կամ վատ կառավարմամբ, ազգային մտածելակերպով կամ մշակույթով, այլ բացառապես պետական հաստատությունների՝ ինստիտուտների որակով։ Բարգավաճ երկրներում, որոնց իշխանությունները շահագրգռված են տնտեսության զարգացմամբ ու ժողովրդի բարօրությամբ, պետական հաստատությունները, որոնք բնութագրվում են որպես «ներգրավող ինստիտուտներ» (inclusive institutions), նպաստում են ազգի բոլոր ստեղծագործ ուժերի ներգրավմանը, ինչն անհնար է առանց ժողովրդավարության, իրավունքի գերակայության, ազատ մրցակցության և սեփականության անձեռնմխելիության ապահովման։ Իսկ աղքատ երկրներում, որոնց իշխանություններն առաջնորդվում են միայն սեփական հարստացման ու իրենց իշխանության հավերժացման շահագրգռությամբ, գործում են, այսպես կոչված, «կորզիչ ինստիտուտներ» (extractive institutions), որոնց խնդիրն է վանել ազգի բոլոր ստեղծագործ ուժերը և ամեն ինչ կենտրոնացնել իշխանությանն ապօրինաբար տիրած ավազակախմբի ձեռքում։ Ցավով պետք է ավելացնեմ, որ գրքում Հայաստանը, որպես օրինակ, հիշատակված է աշխարհի մի քանի «ձախողված պետությունների» շարքում։ գրքի հղումը #Լեւոն #Տեր-Պետրոսյան #հարցազրույց #ընտրություններ #Ter-Petrossian #interview #elections #Armenia #Հայաստան #fail #nation #ազգ #democracy #ժողովրդավարություն #freedom #ազատություն #books #book #գիրք #գրքեր
#Լեւոն #Տեր-Պետրոսյան #հարցազրույց #ընտրություններ #Ter-Petrossian #interview #elections
QUESTION: Did you vote in the ‘92 presidential elections?
#CHOMSKY : Yeah, I voted.
QUESTION: You don’t seem too enthusiastic.
CHOMSKY: I voted more against [George] #Bush than for anybody.
QUESTION: Does “anybody” mean the other mainstream candidate, Bill Clinton? CHOMSKY: I voted for #Clinton, not necessarily because I approve of his position, but because I think Bush would be worse.
http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/1992----.htm #elections #ընտրություններ