A thought to take with you when you go out and vote for the European parliament: Last Saturday I read an interesting column by the Dutch writer Bas Heijne (through Google Translate) on the topic of Europe's state of affair (in Dutch). His argument can be summarized with the following quote, while referring to Rüdiger Safranski, from his column (translated):
As global processes get more closely intertwined, things get ever more complex, so complex that they are intellectually too hard to understand. You have no overview, and yet you are forced to take a position.
The message I distilled was (yes my mind works in mysterious ways): vote for parties that focus on future direction, not the processes that are needed to get there. Don't vote for parties that are only focussed on changing the process (e.g. "the European parliament should be more democratic", "we should vote for the leader of the parliament", "retreat from the EU"). Instead vote for parties that are also giving their vision on the future ("we should have more clean air", "we should reduce child labour", "we should make sure everyone speaks the tongue of the country they are in"). In the end, it is not the process that counts, but the outcomes. How exactly whatever vision should be realized in the (near) future (through a more or less democratic process for example) is too complex to grasp. I will vote for a party that has a vision of how the future should look like, and will try to do everything they can to realize this future. How exacty, I don't care, don't want to care... its too complex... just get it started.
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Dit artikel van murblog van Maarten Brouwers (murb) is in licentie gegeven volgens een Creative Commons Naamsvermelding 3.0 Nederland licentie .