I've always supported direct democracy (aka extra-parliamentary action) fairly unconditionally, but have been viewing recent developments with some personal trepidation--largely confirmed by a brief glance at the most popular petitions on this site. Government-by-focus-group is scary enough. Its full-blown form of "participatory democracy" seems to consist of the government giving Murdoch free reign to warp the minds of middle-England into a highly manipulable mess of fear and loathing, and then employ an army of consultants at forty quid per hour to ask its opinion before framing mountains of half-baked, knee-jerk crowd-pleasing legislation and appointing ever-encroaching armies of half-educated QA bureaucrats to ensure that everyone's full attention is on massaging metrics rather than healing the sick, teaching the young etc etc . . . This ain't accountability, it's collective insanity. What can you do? 90% of the population apparently has the sense to oppose war in Iraq, but would also dump asylum seekers in prison ships, repeal race relations and gender equality legislation, string up paedophiles, ban sex education and force institutions to set up surveillance of political discussion in British universities--and is apparently more concerned about preserving the right of the rump of the feudal ruling class to chase foxes around in archaic dress before ripping them apart alive than it is about anything else!!! I went to one of those wretched expert panel thingies they have at Portcullis house a while back where the Liberal MP chairing the thing took the view that government wasn't keen on ICT because it would blow the wind of change up their trousers. Can't remember what he said exactly but there was frequent reference to "government silos" in there . . . Personally, I'd love to open up the silos of government, but that isn't the apparent effect of all this "participation". Everyone's systems seem to be under scrutiny except for those at Westminster and Pall Mall. Sorry for this blast of cynicism, but grafting "participatory democracy" onto our secretive feudal parliament, "marketised" and monopolised media institutions and chaotic education system may have rather unstable results . . . When a right-wing demagogue owns most popular media, habeas corpus has been suspended, and the secret service, army and police are apparently somewhat to the left of government *and* the tabloid readership, it's time to be afraid. But maybe I misjudge my countrypersons--perhaps they will drag their attention from headscarves, foxes, and paedophiles and lobby for anti-trust legislation to protect genuine press freedom, for greater social equality, responsible trade, effective action to protect the world's resources and all-round quality of life, protest at the erosion of civil freedoms and political tolerance, the suppression of independent media and the demonisation of a proportion of our population. I'm not holding my breath though. But, having said all that, I still support this kind of independent initiative. It's not only a failure on the part of governments to deploy digital democracy effectively but also a failure on the left to modernise and effectively develop and disseminate critical thinking. Activists often don't make good use of ICT either. At least these guys are *trying*! It's important to resist the pompous conclusion drawn in some quarters of Britain's ruling elite that the idea of popular sovereignty is passe. Populations can expect to be "consulted" (at huge expense) but need to bite down on the "fact" that life is now too complex for them to understand and they are not in control. This smacks of the reasons the ruling class gave to resist universal (male) emancipation--that non-property-owners were too thick to understand what's going on (if I may paraphrase). The problem is not that political economy now passes all understanding (it always did!) but that people are being misinformed, manipulated and increasingly disempowered by complex practices which have been largely effective at securing mass compliance with high dubious corporate agendas. Paula Heidelberg, Chris wrote:
Looks more like old time ancient Greek democracy to me. Whoa! Isn't the UK supposed to be a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary form of government? Imagine if this catches on in other countries...say like the United States...oh no it real participatory government from the masses...aka mob rule. Just a humorous yet profound thought on my part.
-----Original Message----- From: air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org [mailto:air-l-bounces@listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Wainer Lusoli Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 7:56 AM To: apsa_itp@lists.hmdc.harvard.edu; air-l@listserv.aoir.org Subject: [Air-l] Petition Tony Blair, online that is
Still rubbing my eyes in disbelief
Any thoughts, anyone?
Wainer
-------------------------------------------- Wainer Lusoli http://www.lusoli.info http://del.icio.us/lusoli http://www.i-pol.org --------------------------------------------
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