Progress

After something like an 18-month, fanatical battle with skirmish after skirmish, fighting off propoganda, lies and dirty tricks, it looks as though farming on Jeraddo is safe – for now. I think the younger generation of Jeraddo people are oblivious to the freedom we’ve won for them, they’re just happily farming away regardless, but for all us freedom-fighters, it has been a long, hard slog.  There are other moons, of course, but I don’t see why a perfectly harmless, legal occupation should be outlawed, and I don’t see why we should have to leave our native moon to farm elsewhere.  Those who have their eyes open know that it can all be attributed to an illegitimate government hell-bent on destoying the very fabric of Bajoran society so that the hapless victims will have no option to appeal to them to save them, thereby cementing its own existence.  I never thought I would take an interest in politics or government until my own freedom was threatened, but now it seems to be all-consuming.

The flip-side of big government comes when you need very costly help. I know the Ferengis are hotly debating the creation of a planet-wide healthcare system, but with Mr. Nerys senior seriously ill in hospital, I am deeply thankful that the Bajoran health service has been there to care for him. It isn’t free, we’ve been paying for it all our lives, but I think perhaps that’s a better way than having to find the latinum all in one go, and falling on the mercy of ‘charity’ if the latinum can’t be found.  I’ve been trying to educate myself on different political ideas, liberalism, conservatism and even libertarianism, but I end up with more and more unanswered questions. Perhaps that is the nature of exploring new ideas. If they don’t present you with new questions, you’re not really thinking.  For so many reasons, I question the validity of democracy (the shambolic nature of the undemocratic way the farming crisis was resolved has really opened my eyes to how farcical it all is) and I’m tending more and more towards libertarianism. I never would have thought of myself as conservative, but that would seem to be the next logical step. It’s not as simple as left and right though, I’ve discovered, and I thank the Political Compass for widening my vision.  The questionnaire puts me in the lower-left quadrant: the libertarian left. I’m not sure what that means. Perhaps compassionate conservativism?

I have very little faith in the prospective candidates or parties that are vying for control of the next Bajoran government, but I do know that we need to get the current lot out. Their links to the Cardassians were well hidden when they came to power, but their colours are well visible now.  They don’t look like the old Cardassians, as they’ve mixed the old Cardassian way of doing things with Federation methods, but the result is still the same – bigger government, increased loss of freedom and a very broken Bajor.  Enough is enough. Thus far, and no further!