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> In politics, very often, there are no strictly enforced rules, there are groups of pressures pushing in opposing directions. All power is ultimately politics
by forapurpose 9y ago
> In politics, very often, there are no strictly enforced rules, there are groups of pressures pushing in opposing directions.
All power is ultimately politics, not rules. People can use politics to change the rules, which happens often through lobbyists, influence, or even force.
Powerful actors operate on the level of politics; they write the rules. The plebeians operate at the level of rules. If I'm unhappy with something a major corporation does, I can operate within the rules and complain to a regulator or take the company to court. If the corporation is unhappy then they get the rules changed, for example by having laws passed that prohibit my lawsuit, eliminate their liability, or hamstring the regulator. It also happens in smaller domains, such as among employees of a business: those skilled in politics get the internal decisions and rules made in their favor.
The exception is, broadly speaking, more common than the process described above: The issues most people deal with in their everyday lives aren't important enough to motivate political action.
- wiz21c 9y ago>>> The issues most people deal with in their everyday lives aren't important enough to motivate political action. Save for the fact that their life is completely shaped by politics. I like your analysis a lot, but I don't like your conclusion. Because ultimately, humans make politics, so one can influence them. In french there's a saying : if you don't care about politics, then politics will take care of you...
- thaumasiotes 9y ago> In french there's a saying : if you don't care about politics, then politics will take care of you... There is an English template for expressing this idea; it goes "You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you". I don't know what originally filled the spot where I've put in "politics".
- forapurpose 9y ago> I don't like your conclusion. Because ultimately, humans make politics, so one can influence them. I agree with you; I meant to imply that as part of the mechanism.