Asperger's and political activism...........

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I agree, Eamonn, except on one thing. Some people are not clever enough (through no fault of their own) to understand the extreme complexities of politics. I mean, people can do PHD's on the subject and still understand but a fraction of what could be going on. In this case, it is the responsibility of those who do understand a bit about it to explain it to others and encourage them to take an interest in it.

However, I think if people automatically take a cynical attitude to all politics, they are not helping themselves, let alone their country. There are politicians out there who genuinely want to help. I mean, going back to Assassin's example of 30's Germany, there were bound to be people opposing Hitler and if enough people became interested, Hitler could have been nipped in the bud before he became too powerful.

I agree, what i think however is that humans are reactive animals and arent perfect so more of us should strive to make sure everyone has a fair deal in life or if any of us find ourselves or our group in a similar position of persecution then we cant expect that person or group to be sympathetic since i or we werent when the shoe was on the other foot.

It really depends on the situation for me but i would be lying if i said i always acted to help those who havent helped me in a similar situation. Money is one example of this, if i lend someone money and then i know they are holding out when im a bit short myself then i would hold out on them next time.

that posts confusin but yeh i agree

I went to university with vague ideas that I had a responsibility to use the experience as a chance to be politically active. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I went on a demonstration against the proposed introduction of university tuition fees. I didn't mind the crowd so much, but I didn't feel swayed by them at all. It was a bit similar to how I've felt when I've gone to watch live football matches. I just don't feed off the emotion of the crowd at all.

Anyway, the reason I'm ashamed is that now - eight years later - I see that given the current situation in Britain, tuition fees are necessary, and what I should be protesting against is that situation itself, i.e., the fact that university degrees in Britain are becoming progressively more worthless thanks to the Labour Party's social engineering project. Labour are determined to get half of the nation's young people into university, and are thus forcing universities to admit thousands of unqualified students each year, many of whom soon drop out. (God, why not just increase school leaving age to 21 instead?)
And I freely admit I wasn't much better, but at least I got a degree. Frankly, I now kind of wish I'd been forced to experience some of the drudgery of work after leaving school instead. Then maybe I could have gone to university as a mature student and actually made something of it.

Anyway, the rally was mainly organised by the student branch of the Socialist Workers Party. I didn't realise then what an extreme bunch they were. But I met some of them, and they were real pains. They were the sort of people who weren't happy unless they had something to demonstrate against, and they seemed unable to lighten up for 30 seconds, instead preferring to talk about things like how the police were institutionally racist and other such meaningless rubbish.

I nearly became active again recently by writing to my local council to protest against our local pub applying for a late license, but I forgot. No matter. They didn't get it, and they went out of business. Hooray!

I wouldn't go on an anti-Iraq-war rally, since I support the war. I'm more concerned with the "war within the west" as some people have called it. I recently read a news item about Dudley county council banning an employee's "Pooh and Piglet" tissue box, because one Muslim employee found it offensive. Another recent news story described how Burger King had to withdraw its ice cream cones from British restaurants "because Mr Rashad Akhtar of High Wycombe, after a trip to the Park Royal branch, complained that the creamy swirl on the lid resembled the word "Allah" in Arabic script. "

This craziness almost makes me want to become active again. Maybe I could try to get myself arrested for selling hot-cross buns during Ramadan or something. But if I did get arrested, most people would hardly bat an eyelid.

I'll get involved as well, but on the other side, Ascan!!

Anti-racist laws are there for a reason. Its to stop racists like you being racist.

What's race got to do with it, RobertN?

So what? So are Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and a whole bunch of others.

Nobody's doing that.

Anything else? Perhaps you think I've been up to a touch of warmongering, on the side, too?