Half of this record of a fisherman’s meeting is taken up by the Film Board folk taking the concerns of the meeting to the minister. Is this the social democrat equivalent to the market economy problem of voluntary largesse? If the economy is bad, then the voluntary generosity dries up. If Colin Low isn’t around, or if the civil servants are swamped/not worth their salt, then the problems aren’t solved, or even heard. That’s not all, I guess. What about the MLA? How on earth does one take care of these things? I don’t know about you, but I think I still favour the social democratic solution.
The meeting itself is somewhat sparsely attended, in the dark in the school there. (The affected parties are interested, but they’ve got other duties, or they’ve been at work all day…) Concerns are deep, and valid, and the questions are fair. Do I get this right? Sometimes those in the thick of it can’t quite get a handle on the problems they’re in the midst of. This brings us back to the need for and the problem of hierarchy, or even of representational-as-opposed-to-participatory democracy. Plato’s Republic, or Lippman/Grierson’s opinion leaders. Modernity and democracy are pretty impossible. And look at how this modest little document demonstrates the expanse of the thing.