[LINK] OT: Re: Hardies decision ...

[Frank O'Connor]

Right ...

We get what we deserve ...
----
On 04/05/2012, at 11:21 AM, jim birch wrote:

> On David Boxall <david.boxall at hunterlink.net.au> wrote:
> 
>> I'm coming to think it's a pity that we elect our governments. With the
>> increasing sophistication of information
>> manipulation/falsification/perversion, Democracy is beginning to look
>> unworkable.
>> 
> 
> There is a piece on the subject of democracy in the internet age on ABC's
> Occams Razor by Nick Gruen.  I just started the podcast so haven't got a
> full opinion but bit I heard to sounded but thoughtful and realistic, as I
> would expect from Gruen.
> 
> "In much discussion of the ills of our democracy ‘we the people’ figure as
> innocent victims of the depredations of others: Of the sensationalism of
> the media, of the duplicity of our politicians.  But the media doesn’t run
> the sensationalist, empty, narcissistic rubbish it runs and politicians
> don’t engage in the dark arts of spin and character assassination because
> they are a lower form of life.  They do it because our decisions mean that
> it works.  We buy the papers.  We voted for John Howard in 2004 though by
> then we knew of his lies about children overboard.  We voted for Paul
> Keating in 1993 because he demonised the GST, the same policy he described
> as an economic necessity a few years earlier.
> 
> This self-indulgence about ‘we the people’ can lead to magical thinking.
> In our republican debate how often have you heard someone say that they
> don’t want our politicians to appoint our head of state because we want
> something better than a typical politician?  They conclude that ‘we the
> people’ should keep it in our own hands by electing them ourselves."
> 
> Podcast or transcript:
> http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/beyond-vox-pop-democracy3a-deepening-democracy-in-the-internet/3976072
> 
> Jim
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