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With no internet access at my place in Newcastle (that will change as my ADSL kit arrived today courtesy of the rather slow AAPT) I’ve been reading somewhat more than normal. The book I just finished is one that all people who are disengaged from politics should read, for it is not the politics that one should show interest or care about, but the democratic process. That book is Silencing Dissent. The book I am starting is from the US on the thinking processes of conservatives and progressives. That one is Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think. There are two quotes I’d like to share with you, the first from the end of Silencing Dissent, the second from the acknowledgements of George Lakoff’s Moral Politics.

Without the engagement and participation of the people democracy is dead.

Silencing Dissent, Sarah Maddison & Clive Hamilton

If your baby cries at night, do you pick him up?

Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think, George Lakoff quoting Paul Baum regarding the best indicator of liberal vs. conservative political attitudes