Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/  + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/ , http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/ , or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/  



I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.

THE-NOT-VOTER
31 Brain-lock (1)

Any numbers of Latvians have commented on the lock-the-brain mechanisms that appear to affect the thought processes of Latvians, those living in Latvia and those living abroad as well.

The latest comment comes from Džemma Skulme.  The artist comments that Latvian politicians appear to live in the world of “folk poetry” and that on the whole “A Latvian does not seek, does not analyze who he is. Instead, he assumes a pose.” (Latvietis nemeklē, neanalizē, kas viņš ir. Viņš ieņem pozu.)

A near similar comment comes from the renowned Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis. Hermanis—who has studied the Latvian mindset in a cycle of plays that lasted five years—claims the Latvian mindset to be: “naïve as that of the American Indians”. See the magazine "Ir". Of course, Hermanis is speaking of the naiveté of “Indians” in the sense that it permitted them to trust the whites who invaded and then destroyed their native cultures. Hermanis suggests that Latvians who live in the countryside do not yet understand the language of the elites (? liars) of Europe.

My own experience with the Latvian mindset is similar. My forty-six years in the U.S. (I was born in Latvia and lived there until eleven) were made memorable, for no small part, by my need to “flee” the society of Latvian exiles (trimdinieki) in order to be able to think—at least what I believe it means to think freely—and not live according to a set of unwritten rules transmitted in one way or another by then editors of the exile newspaper “Laiks”, the ex-legionnaire organization known as “Daugavas Vanagi”, the Latvian exile church, and a relentless drill in Latvian “folk symbols” at almost any Latvian gathering. In short, the intra-exile rules of Latvians abroad during the last half of the 20th century demanded a) an attitude of extreme Latvian nationalism; b) fear God as if he were Satan; c) the drumbeat that the bond that bound Latvians into a community was the church; d) the insistence that such a fear of God was necessary to maintain an eternal hate of communism; e) that to remain loyal to Latvia meant to remain in a state of mind imagined other than “normal”, i.e., the state of the mind of the West was believed to “abnormal” (dissolute and Godless); f) that the Latvian media was not to communicate any ideas contrary to a-f, and g) etc.

The above list (and it could be longer) comes to mind when listening to the pre-election vapid and “nothin’special” arguments of the political parties presuming themselves to be able to form the next government of Latvia. This lock-brain approach has been described by the Latvian politologue Ivars Ījabs as a process which “step by step leads Latvia to abandon the civilized orbit of Western Europe for a trip that may not have a return ticket”.

Though Alvis Hermanis and Ivars Ījabs statements appear to contradict each other, they are nevertheless part of the critical mind, which for a century and a half (I begin the count at about 1860) has been forced to suffer repression. In other words, the threat to Latvians as a free people does not come from Russia (though I lost eight family members to Soviet deportation), but as Ījabs says: “Indeed, the feared Russia exists rather in the heads of the political elite, where (every head) contains a small kreml [?grinch] and lubyanka [rather than fact]”. See link to Ījabs.

Somewhere in my various blogs, I have mentioned that many Latvians suffer from the Turret’s Syndrome. The most obvious manifestation of this syndrome appears in internet posts, where ad hominem arguments, various forms of insults, open anti-semitism, and other forms of slurs are a common occurrence. While Turret’s Syndrome is a universal marvel in our time, it is a particularly strong involuntary tick-of-speech among Latvians. My own theory is that this is the result of the above mentioned brain-lock, which the unconscious mind, unaware of the causes of the brain-lock, attempts to correct by screaming insults to gain attention. What is gained in reality is, unfortunately, a substitution of insults for a critical mind.

How to be cured of the Turret’s Syndrome?

One answer is to NOT-VOTE in the coming elections. I see a large turnout of a NOT-VOTE as Turret’s Syndrome in reverse. If the NOT-VOTE were to become reality, it would clearly defrock politicians of authority.

However, the closest Latvian variant to NOT-VOTING that is gaining popularity among Latvians (in e-postings) is to suggest participation in the elections, but to drop in the voting box an empty ballot. Herewith, this site accepts the EMPTY BALLOT as a worthy successor to the not-vote. For a full if prejudiced discussion of the pros and cons, click here. Note that the chairman of election reform Valdis Liepins presumes to call an empty ballot (tukša aploksne): "... an evil invitation, one that can be called for only by one who wishes to sabotage the elections". Actually, an EMPTY BALLOT is to express distrust in the Saeima as it is currently constituted, force a rewrite of an outdated Constitution, and, yes, it means to force a corrupt government to face up to the crisis it has created.

See nullification for relevant arguments from the U.S. that may find application in Latvia.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
Electronic polls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10102126.stm
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
British Government Attempts to Bracket the Constitution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8681624.stml
Ground Zero for Thought
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
Why Forced Positive Thinking Is A Lot Of Crock?
http://www.alternet.org/story/146940/barbara_ehrenreich%3A_why_forced_positive_thinking_is_a_total_crock?page=2
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic

Full or partial entries of my blogs may be found at LatviansOnline http://latviansonline.com/forum/ + Forum Home + Open Forum – The-Not-Voter. If you copy this blog for your files, or copy to forward, or otherwise mention its content, please credit the author http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/,  http://melnaysjanis.blogspot.com/ , or http://the-not-voter.blogspot.com/  



I suggest you look at the links imbedded in these blogs or at the end of the blog as an integral part of my argument.

THE-NOT-VOTER
30 Herman’s Opinion

Just a day or two ago, I received the latest installment of pro-Vienotība (pro-Unity) campaign advisory. This time it was concerning the opinions of the internationally famous Latvian theatre director Hermanis, here as reported in the Apollo portal. The entire article may be accessed at the pro-Vienotība (pro-Unity) journal „Ir”, apparently in return for a subscription.

Alvis Hermanis, the renowned director of the New Riga Theatre, opines that the entire political “pool” [actually the Jurmala beach—blogger] has turned yellow from the piss of Latvian politicians swimming in their own. Now that election time is upon us, the politicians are inviting the rest of the public to come into the yellow pool and swim with them.

According to Hermanis: “The educated Latvians will vote for “Vienotība” (Unity), the pensioners will vote for ‘Fatherland’ [i.e., nationalistic parties], whereas the people living in the countryside will vote for those who have turned the swimming pool yellow. The result will be the deconstruction of Latvia as a state.””

Continues Hermanis: “That the majority of Latvians may be called ‘stupid’ (mulķi) was proven when the referendum to dismiss the Saeima [the 100 member parliamentary legislative body of the Latvian government—blogger] did not pass for a lack of sufficient voter participation. In this sense, Latvians have been put in hawk by the majority.”

This blogger takes issue with Alvis Hermanis with regard to only one item (which issue may, however, lead to other issues). This is Hermanis' suggestion that the ‘educated’ Latvians will vote for Vienotība (Unity) and that it is necessarily an educated or smart thing to do, or that the ‘stupid’ people from the countryside have tied the hands of the ‘educated’ ones. As this blogger sees it, it is rather the ‘educated’ Latvians—from whose ranks apparently come most of those who have turned the Gulf of Riga yellow with their piss—who have reneged on any responsibility as far as leadership of the Latvian nation is concerned.

At least the traditional point of view about leadership is that leadership earns its druthers by leading by example. The current vogue of leading is to first stuff one’s pockets with public monies and other public resources, then throw up hands (look, ma, they are empty) and declare themselves helpless. Such helplessness manifests itself in all quarters of government, but is especially noteworthy among the ranks of past and present members of the Saeima, and the ranks of former and current Prime Ministers and Presidents of Latvia.

In short, the leading body of the Latvian government does not lead by example when it comes to the example of self-sacrifice. It must be emphasized that the point being made here is not over sacrifice per se, because the government has no hesitations about sending Latvian soldiers to Afghanistan. The point is that the unselfsacrificers in government offices occupy their offices on the basis of the presumption that the office requires no sacrifice, least of all an actual sacrifice of life or career. What a horrible, barbaric, and vulgar thought! Imagine VVF, and GU (in his new King Lear role), and VZ all moving to live in an abandoned peasant shack (there are many to chose from) in Latgale instead of their posh apartments by the Full of Piss seashore, aka Jurmala?

A large segment of the Latvian public media is also in full support of anti-self-sacrificial government ruling over a ‘stupid’ Latvian public. [Incidentally, if my memory serves right, the Latvian voter was first called “stupid” by a former Latvian Prime Minister now living and playing golf in the State of Florida, USA.] In my previous blog (29), I pointed to the charade knows as “100. pants preses clubs” on Friday evenings on LTV1. This is not to say that LNT’s Monday evening show “Latvia, we hear you” (Latvija mēs tevi dzirdam) led by Haralds Burkovskis, attended by the chairman of the neocapitalist party (PLL) campaign manager, advertiser Stendzenieks, and PLL party chairman Andrejs Ēķis is anything other than pure propaganda...

The question of leadership through the charisma of self-sacrifice is of course not only a Latvian people’s problem. The whole world is suffering today governments entirely lacking charisma. The idea of modern government—introduced by the so-called Age of Enlightenment, that Reason would create and maintain democracy—has fallen apart. The United States of America is the most obvious ruin of Democracy. Suffice to point out its attempt to export “freedom” by means of violence.

Thus, while agreeing with director Alvis Hermanis about the Gulf of Riga being full of the piss of politicians, my question to him as an imaginative director of theatre is: “Can you choreograph a scenario in which a politician turns himself into an object of charisma; or failing to find such a politician, stage a street theatre performance where a group of like-minded ‘stupid’ countryside Latvians come together, and under the eye of television commit seppuku?” Might this not be a way for your intelligence to liberate your fellow countrymen from your curse on them? [Long ago I watched a street theatre group from the U. of Minn. perform anti-nuke theatre on the streets of Boston.] For a “classic” scenario, I can offer “Tiresia’s Revenge”, my interpretation of the Oedipus story at http://esoschronicles.blogspot.com/ , blogs 41-47.

DO NOT FORGET TO GO AND NOT-VOTE! This is to avoid being among the “stupid”. A NOT-VOTE means a vote for change of system; for provoking a crisis that will call forth a Constitutional Assembly to rewrite the Constitution (Satversme); that will most likely institute a four-year long authoritarian government (under the supervision of the EU); etc.

Asterisks & Links of Interest
Compulsory voting in the EU Parliamentary elections
http://www.ceps.eu/files/book/1886.pdf
The abstentionist elephant
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/8783/
Electronic polls
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/10102126.stm
On the Meaning of Voting
http://www.strike-the-root.com/92/bylund/bylund1.html
British Government Attempts to Bracket the Constitution
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8681624.stml
Ground Zero for Thought
http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/146989
Why Forced Positive Thinking Is A Lot Of Crock?
http://www.alternet.org/story/146940/barbara_ehrenreich%3A_why_forced_positive_thinking_is_a_total_crock?page=2
The Trap
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kic