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Mark McInnes | Langford | Councillor

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#1 MarkMcInnes

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Posted 16 October 2014 - 10:41 PM

http://www.markmcinnes.com/

 

 

I try not to smile in pictures because I get a goofy ****-eating grin, as shown by my avatar here...



#2 John M.

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Posted 21 October 2014 - 07:49 PM

Where do you sit on the political spectrum, Mark? 



#3 MarkMcInnes

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Posted 21 October 2014 - 10:53 PM

Politically, I think I'm a black progressive. That aside, fiscally conservative, socially liberal. I think ideology should submit to evidence ultimately, and try to keep an open mind about being wrong or at least not completely correct. But for me, ideology stands very closely to partisanship which is very corrosive in our politics today.

#4 Mixed365

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Posted 21 October 2014 - 11:04 PM

What do you mean exactly by your slogan, "put up or shut up?"


“To understand cities, we have to deal outright with combinations or mixtures of uses, not separate uses, as the essential phenomena.”
- Jane Jacobs 


#5 MarkMcInnes

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 12:05 AM

By "put up or shut up", I mean it as a call to action, it's an old fighting expression. People need to vote. When close to 80% of people aren't even showing up, that's a performance indicator for democracy. We can't keep talking in circles about how things don't get better or people keep getting squished by a machine, and then not show up to vote for something else. I found people my age are not apathetic in that they don't know what's going on, but disengaged from the process for finding it so dirty. It doesn't help sitting back in an armchair and saying "this sucks or that sucks", you got to get started somewhere. I apologize if I'm not completely coherent. This wind storm has me up and I'm already sleepless. Can I explain it better?

#6 John M.

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 10:36 AM

Oxford definition of "Ideology": 

NOUN
1(plural ideologies) A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis ofeconomic or political theory and policy
 
I don't think ideology is directly related to partisanship. If you go into politics, I would expect you to have some sort of political ideology or else I don't know what is guiding you in governance. 


#7 MarkMcInnes

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 11:41 AM

 

Oxford definition of "Ideology": 

NOUN
1(plural ideologies) A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis ofeconomic or political theory and policy
 
I don't think ideology is directly related to partisanship. If you go into politics, I would expect you to have some sort of political ideology or else I don't know what is guiding you in governance. 

 

 

I should qualify that as stubborn ideology. Everyone has an ideology, or some system of thinking through their decisions, even if those are subconscious snap-decisions.

 

For me, the point is that even though everyone has these biases, we work to recognize them and not hold onto them so dearly. It doesn't mean be neutral, it means to have a pretty sober view of how you see the world in relation to how others do, and not work ourselves up into a cutthroat frenzy thinking our way must be the way to do something.

 

Ideology is directly related, I would even venture, because our political system is based on parties, and those often fall in line with ideological leanings. The competitiveness of the political system bleeds (although the relationship is more complex than I'll get into) into the discourse on ideology. It races to the intellectual bottom where things like free markets are viewed in binary as either good or bad depending on where the person can lie on the political spectrum and drives down thoughtful discussion of what is in reality a really complex (and in my mind beautiful) thing as the free market.



#8 John M.

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Posted 22 October 2014 - 08:32 PM

Sorry, can you explain your comment on "stubborn ideology"?



 



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