“I declared that the world was mad” said Poor Lee. “And the world said that I was mad. And goddamn it, they out-voted me.”
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That’s the problem with democracy.
The European football fraternity may loathe Blatter with a passion, but the world and the world of football is a great deal more than Europe. Enough associations from the rest of the world voted for Blatter to render Europe powerless, muttering threats about withdrawal from the World Cup.
Scotland may loathe the Tories with a passion, but the United Kingdom is great deal more than Scotland. Enough people voted Tory to provide an absolute majority for a party which is now hoist on its own petard, with an agenda which consists of ill-considered policies announced in the final days of a campaign they thought they had lost.
They are also faced with some five million voters from UKIP and the Greens who have but two voices to represent them.
That’s democracy for you.
Equally, EUFA and the FA may have the moral high ground, at least in Europe, but the fact is they/we have been outvoted in an electoral system with which we were quite happy until a majority emerged elsewhere.
Blatter may be a corrupt, conniving Machiavel. But he is their corrupt, conniving Machiavel. Few people vote against their own perceived self-interest in any election. Europe didn’t but nor did Africa and Asia. It is no accident that the latter are, in the main, less developed, less wealthy nations. However much cash was hived off, some did reach its destination in the townships. And the fact is, Blatter was the prime mover in this. Not the FA. Not EUFA.
The issue is simple. There are more of them than there are of us. That’s democracy.
There were more voters in the Tory shires voting in their self-interest than there were in the rest of the United Kingdom voting in their self-interest. That's democracy.
But the Tories and Blatter, and indeed all of us, should bear in mind the warning of the late, great Abbie Hoffmann, a son of Worcester, Massachusetts:
“You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”
Today from the everysmith vaults: I suppose it should be Chimes of Freedom or similar. But in fact, it is the famous lost Bob Theme Time Radio Hour Episode 101 - Kiss.
The European football fraternity may loathe Blatter with a passion, but the world and the world of football is a great deal more than Europe. Enough associations from the rest of the world voted for Blatter to render Europe powerless, muttering threats about withdrawal from the World Cup.
Scotland may loathe the Tories with a passion, but the United Kingdom is great deal more than Scotland. Enough people voted Tory to provide an absolute majority for a party which is now hoist on its own petard, with an agenda which consists of ill-considered policies announced in the final days of a campaign they thought they had lost.
They are also faced with some five million voters from UKIP and the Greens who have but two voices to represent them.
That’s democracy for you.
Equally, EUFA and the FA may have the moral high ground, at least in Europe, but the fact is they/we have been outvoted in an electoral system with which we were quite happy until a majority emerged elsewhere.
Blatter may be a corrupt, conniving Machiavel. But he is their corrupt, conniving Machiavel. Few people vote against their own perceived self-interest in any election. Europe didn’t but nor did Africa and Asia. It is no accident that the latter are, in the main, less developed, less wealthy nations. However much cash was hived off, some did reach its destination in the townships. And the fact is, Blatter was the prime mover in this. Not the FA. Not EUFA.
The issue is simple. There are more of them than there are of us. That’s democracy.
There were more voters in the Tory shires voting in their self-interest than there were in the rest of the United Kingdom voting in their self-interest. That's democracy.
But the Tories and Blatter, and indeed all of us, should bear in mind the warning of the late, great Abbie Hoffmann, a son of Worcester, Massachusetts:
“You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”
Today from the everysmith vaults: I suppose it should be Chimes of Freedom or similar. But in fact, it is the famous lost Bob Theme Time Radio Hour Episode 101 - Kiss.
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