My heroes!

I imagine most of us prefer not to be lumped into some generic "you."  We are individuals making our individual contributions, and I know I want to be responded to as such.  

If you see no worthy protagonism here, I invite you to provide some.

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire

... don't make up for real intelligence.

Like the FBI, you have none.

your poorly written and commented MackyDee article

Who is you here? Haven't you figured out yet that diaries have individual authors and that they are not necessarily endorsed by the site, nor by any readers or commenters in particular?

By the way, I found your McD comment insightful and thought-provoking, but I didn't have anything cogent to say about it. Sorry to disappoint you.

I see no protagonism here. Its just cynical words spoken on the theatre balcony of politics.

You're so fucking arrogant. Not everyone is a paid operative of a political party like you are, so you can "make news not comment on it".

Of course, to want to be a protagonist you have to have an ego the size of Mont Blanc. My ego is big nut not that much. I also have a healthy dose of self-doubt and gave up on proselitizing when I was 16.

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

Okay, guilty of cynicism. Hands raised high in the air, it's my gift. My only gift.

Actually no, my cynicism is rooted in a set of moral values that is disgusted by the venality of egotistical politicians. I believe in Government, in the power of the will of the people harnessed to do good. I test every idea and act against its power to do good, or at least do no harm. I try to make that my gift.

But a protagonist ? I wish. I imagined once I had sound ideas, that from reading Kos and Digby and Harry's Place and others sillier than I dare admit I had a handle on what was going on. Then I ran into these guys. Now I sit back and enjoy the fireworks of real thinking in action.

Half the time I'm constrained from diarising cos I'm terrified that it will just be ignored. Politely, but well ya know. Of course the other half is that actually I'm not engaged enough to have that much to say.

But no protagonists ? Sir, ye jest !! Jerome is changing the nature of energy debate in the USA. If that ain't significant leadership, well grasshopper, what you seek is not here.

We're young, we're trying. This is a diffuse community spread across many countries who may not share an agenda, but we share the common strand of brave, militant, unapologetic liberalism that underpins everything here. David Sirota describes its emergence in the US as the tell-tale signs of a true progressive populist movement emerging.

Well it's happening here too, we are part of that movement. Maybe we will not be first among equals, but all streams run to the sea eventually. I am excited to be here, you could be too.

keep to the Fen Causeway

By the way, in case you were nor paying attention, on this site we actually make an effort to navigate the morass that is the European Union and its badly designed website. We genuinely try to figure out if there is an opening where we can get our foot into any meaningful debate. But, you know what? There is none. The EU's communication policy is a joke, the websites seem designed to get you lost rather than give you access. Commissioner Wallström's blog is infested with trolls and has a nanny moderator that looks down on commenters. The EU's open consultations are also a smokescreen, or not intended for the general public, just the "stakeholding" locusts.

In case you haven't noticed, you are quite liked around here [at least by me] because of your witty, lateral-thinking comments, your street cred, and your inexhaustible photo archive. You also bring in insider information about a variety of topics. I have noticed what you're foing with the Venezuelans. What I've also noticed is that you're content to drop hints in random comments here and there, often in languages other than English without translation or a word of introduction. You could write a short diary every so often, you know? Maybe about Chavez? But no, you don't comment on news, you just make it happen.

You also drop names all the time. You have drinks with this or that MEP. Have you bothered to introduce the site to your contacts? Do you have any feedback that we might find useful to raise our appeal to those kinds of people? No, that would be being helpful but that would make things too easy for us and that's not like you, is it?

What's wrong with you today? Why do you have to take whatever it is out on ET?

A society committed to the notion that government is always bad will have bad government. And it doesn't have to be that way. — Paul Krugman

<looking around, arms spread...> Huh??!?

"Once in awhile we get shown the light, in the strangest of places, if we look at it right" - Hunter/Garcia

We all have personality checks. Some leave theirs more unchecked than others. As a result some eurotribbers are bound by political correctedness and stay polite and feel that adding smiley and snark signs is a necessity for better communication, others like you, poemless and Migeru are more open-mouthed and direct. We're diverse, basically.

Protagnism is going to take a while. Some people come up with good ideas once in a while about going further with ET (organizing workshops etc), but these get drowned too young because that's what we are, a young blog. At some point it's going to work. It did for kos, why not for us?

Cultural elitism is your perception. Jérôme, who wears a suit and tie & lives in the 16th arrondissement in Paris, and thus has all the external signs of a comfortable leftie, nevertheless likes to break rear-view mirrors of cars that try to run him down at pedestrian crossings (he's at 18 mirrors so far). So rebellion is there in each one of us, it just manifests itself diversely. Some of us were long-haired beatnicks, others still are, others yet are short-haired & clean-shaven spokesmen types.

We only try to sound correct and well-educated because we already all do the swearing and yelling in our everyday lives offline.

You're not stealing my wind just now the Dutch cabinet just collapsed, are you?

In case Alex hadn't underlined it enough, ET is a young blog. For me, it has put me on a learning curve - and I daresay it has done so for others. On the other hand, you may already have the attitude and the arrogance to have what it takes to be a "protagonist" and life the live to be one - I daresay this blog is ready for that or for whatever protagonist role you want it to have. I think you deeply underestimate how long the process of energising people may take, or perhaps you wish to ignore that. Slowly, slowly, catch the monkey.

you see it that way, and I hope we can convince you to stay and bring your energy and your unexpected insights to fruition here.

As has been said above, we're still a very small blog. we all have busy lifes, and we try to do what we can, first by informing ourselves, thene spreading the information, then analysing it, and then trying to send our insights to the outside world. To do this requires a lot of efforts and time, and we're doing it on our scale, in addition to the snarky cynical commentary (which I'll agree is not absent from the site, and is part of its wealth of information).

Let's all bring more people over here, create a critical mass to become able to have action items, regular LTEs and, who knows, pulbications or other noticeable impacts in the real media.

And I must say I'd be particularly disappointed not to see your comments anymore.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Your open constant cynicism

What the fuck are you talking about? The only cynicism people show here is towards the sold-out media whores who ply the wares of neo-lib corporate capitalism and American imperialism to the entire listening world. What's your Bullshit Bingo, then, if it's not cynicism?

Oh, you mean we joke with each other? Wow.

And what's this shit about elitism? No, I do not like Fast Food and consider it an imposition of the corporate capitalist world on the poorer majority of citizens. Don't you fucking call me an elitist for that.

And what's this writing a bilious goodbye-cruel-world diary then coming around with the invitations to Brussels?

So we are just a bunch of individuals already spending more time than we can afford working towards an aim of intervening in some way (our aims are not even yet clearly defined -- but we're not going to take yours as a quick default solution, sorry, we're going to take the time it takes); meanwhile you're a paid party operative and you have connections we don't have. Stop being so fucking arrogant about it.

It would be a real pity not to see your comments here in the future. But if they have to be paid for with the kind of crap you wrote above, then (though I insist I would personally feel the loss) perhaps you should do as you say and go.

I'm a protagonist for broader roles for the EP, for EU-wide tax harmonisation at a high level, EU-wide harmonisation of labour and environmental laws at a high level, for an EU-wide application of the German feed-in law, for a shift away of funds from highways to public transit, and a heavy tax on sports cars owned by Brussels bureaucrats, parlamentarians and lobbyists.

On the other hand, I see more truth in what you say than the others here. Though, as afew implied, it's a difference that we do politics in our spare time and you do it all day as a profession. Then again, that's true of many of Chávez's supporters in Venezuela. There is also a class issue here, though many would like to gloss over that.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

Nice rant but...from an outsider/lurker point of view, a little misguided.
This forum has members who range from mover-and-shaker types like Jerome (and from what you say, yourself) to intellectuals like Migeru. The ambiance is much more like walking into the middle of a heated philosophical discussion at an interesting cafe than the political convention that is Kos. FWIW, both are necessary in that it's hard to make concrete decisions without a lot of sound input, both practical and theoretical; but once that knowledge is gained, action should be taken to put that information to work.
From a personal standpoint, I find it difficult to join in a majority of conversations on ET because I'm simply not qualified to comment. Where I came from, I had a broad understanding of the culture and enough specialized knowledge of many issues to contribute positively to the progressive dialogue. I was known by most of the players on the political scene, and even counted some of them as friends so my opinion was trusted, and furthermore it mattered.
Since moving to England, I find that a lot of the issues this country is dealing with are subtly different, the way that the media deals with them is biased in unfamiliar ways. The attitude of "the man on the street" and its relation to both the political system and the way the media portrays it is also ambiguous. Until I have a better understanding of both this culture and that of greater Europe, it behooves me to keep on lurking rather than taking actions which are naive or misguided.
Your input as an activist is valuable and appreciated, but then so is that of the posters who offer observation, analysis, and even snark.

 Ritter,

  Being the very smart person you are, you should have a good bit more to offer in influence here than to pout to a bunch of people who read and respect what you have to say and then say "Sayonara, cookie!"

  In a diary on a "More just society", I tried offering what is some of my best effort here; as I recall (without checking) you had fuck all (e.g. nada) to say about that piece of fluff; did I complain?  Nope.

  BTW, I wrote this just now in reply to your commment on Mickey D's:

  What do you call a Quarter-Pounder with cheese in Paris? de la merde

"In such an environment it is not surprising that the ills of technology should seem curable only through the application of more technology..." John W Aldridge

If this diary was meant as a kick to get people to start moving towards what we always talk about then I have to say job well done.

Now put up a carrot thread where we can talk about the october meetup and everything should be well. Except for a bunch of grumpy old donkeys of course. Erm... Did I just piss off a bunch of people too now?

a community especially if it is a critical voice.

Pardon my ignorance, but is there some case of web-multiple personality disorder? I am really sorry if I like fresh baked baguettes with jamon and a glass of good beer as opposed to nasty-ass triple cheeseburger and fries that don't spoil for 2 weeks. Does that make me elitist? Sure. Or maybe I just think that after working our asses off day in and day out, we deserve something better than mass produced food.

As for the rest, I am not even going there.

Mikhail from SF

In part I agree. However:

-This show is awful!
-Terrible!
-Disgusting!
-See you next week?
-Of course.

jeez, go away for 10 days and this is the diary i reconnect with...

serious cognitive dissonance...

we are just pixels, and may not like each other in person at all; meanwhile some ideas get tossed around, some great, some greatly banal.

what's going on?

the apple of discord is thrown...

ritter, your comments are fun to read, but this is pure provocation, and operatically self-important.

those highpower dudes are bending your mind.

as a psych exercise, interesting...

ban snark, would ye?

shiver me timbers, you're asking to walk the plank!

this is a cool place to stop by and learn something, and most of us here aren't about to start a revolution, much as we'd like to.

we just want to have fun and get a little savvier, s'all.

are you an ex-street fighter turned diplomat?

whatever...

'The history of public debt is full of irony. It rarely follows our ideas of order and justice.' Thomas Piketty