Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Moral influence on political parties

Gus Van Horn discusses the impact of those who support a specific issue on mainstream political parties versus their influence when they form their own party:

http://gusvanhorn.blogspot.com/2008/01/indeed-indeed.html

Forming a third party seems to be one good way to get the major parties to ignore you, thus rendering your effectiveness at creating political change nil.

Van Horn quotes from C. Bradley Thompson's Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader, which I hope to read someday. It looks like it will be an eye-opener.

There currently seems to be a development in Objectivist thought which is based in part on rediscovering the strategies used by great moral movements in the past, such as the abolitionist movement. Much activity these days seems to be centered on identifying strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures in these movements and examining how they might be applied to the promotion of Objectivism.

I'm currently working through "Cultural Movements: Creating Change", a series of lectures given at OCON, and now available for free on the ARC website at http://www.aynrand.org/site/PageServer?pagename=media_new. The video is currently at the top of the page under "VIDEO & AUDIO".

2 comments:

  1. >". . . rediscovering the strategies used by great moral movements in the past . . ."

    You might be interested in a very brief look at the current efforts of an in-line activist, Raymond Niles. He works in the investment side of the electric-power industry. He is a moral man using moral methods to achieve a moral result.

    See my August 1, 2008 post at Making Progress:

    http://www.aristotleadventure.blogspot.com/

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  2. Hi Burgess! Thanks for stopping by! And thanks for the heads up!

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