Time Magazine book excerpt: "The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore

I've always prided myself on not identifying with any particular political party, and in high-level elections over the last decade or so I've made it a point to avoid either of the establishment parties altogether. But whatever your politics may be I'd recommend reading this Time Magazine excerpt of Al Gore's new book The Assault on Reason.

After a bumpy start (to my mind) in which he claims "We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press"--he almost lost me on those accounts--Gore goes on to hit the nail squarely on the head:

"Many Americans now feel that our government is unresponsive and that no one in power listens to or cares what they think. They feel disconnected from democracy. They feel that one vote makes no difference, and that they, as individuals, have no practical means of participating in America's self-government. Unfortunately, they are not entirely wrong. Voters are often viewed mainly as targets for easy manipulation by those seeking their "consent" to exercise power. By using focus groups and elaborate polling techniques, those who design these messages are able to derive the only information they're interested in receiving from citizens—feedback useful in fine-tuning their efforts at manipulation. Over time, the lack of authenticity becomes obvious and takes its toll in the form of cynicism and alienation. And the more Americans disconnect from the democratic process, the less legitimate it becomes.

Many young Americans now seem to feel that the jury is out on whether American democracy actually works or not. We have created a wealthy society with tens of millions of talented, resourceful individuals who play virtually no role whatsoever as citizens. Bringing these people in—with their networks of influence, their knowledge, and their resources—is the key to creating the capacity for shared intelligence that we need to solve our problems. "

Ultimately Gore comes to a conclusion that might have been lifted word-for-word from Jacob Needleman's excellent The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders:

"So the remedy for what ails our democracy is not simply better education (as important as that is) or civic education (as important as that can be), but the re-establishment of a genuine democratic discourse in which individuals can participate in a meaningful way—a conversation of democracy in which meritorious ideas and opinions from individuals do, in fact, evoke a meaningful response."

Gore touts the internet as "supporting decentralized processes that reinvigorate democracy". Needleman suggested we actually make the time to begin coming together physically in public assembly once again.

I won't sit in judgement of either idea. It's "any port in a storm" at this point...

Comments

[Mike Lorenz]

I think at this point it's a matter of scale. The federal government is simply too big for individual people to connect with the civic process in a meaningful way. That's one reason why, I think, big corporate and financial interests have so successfully been able to buy our government outright - it operates on a scale similar to them. If the average citizen was virtually immortal and had access to more or less limitless capital with which to buy influence, if ordinary people had a choke-hold on the means by which information is disseminated to the public then maybe we would be able to interact with our federal and state overlords effectively. As it stands, we don't, so we can't. I think that government is going to have to be relocalized along with everything else in the wake of energy decline. I have my doubts as to how effective anything beyond the county (or possibly a smaller state) level government will be in the future.
- Mike Lorenz

[slomo]

I agree with Mike. The global corporation and the global empire are doomed simply because the energy costs for sustaining them will grow impossibly large.

[Gina]

I agree that scale is a huge challenge to connect individuals to the civic procss. The internet does provide great hope as a venue for meaningful two-way political discussion to take place. To me, at this point, it seems like we need a more organized process to harness the potential the internet provides. Something like a publicly funded site that provided summaries of where candidates for office, and those currently holding office, stand on various issues and a formalized process where citizens could voice their opinions and polls could be conducted after discussions have taken place. There should be a way for local, regional and national political discussions to occur.

The current system of brief sound-bites and advertising is a completely ridiculous way of choosing our political representatives. Even debates do not provide the comprehensive view of a candidate that would be possible in an internet forum.

Moveon.org has provided somewhat of a template of what is possible. If we could take that model, add more opportunity for two-way discussions, and organize it at local, regional and national levels, it could go a long way toward making government more representative, responsive and accountable to the people.

[Steven Lagavulin]

I think you're onto something, Gina. What if there was a voter information site organized along the lines of, say, Google's News page? One that doesn't create information, per se, but simply aggregates information, articles, news, weblog pieces, etc. around candidates and major issues, and therefore include as wide a number of voices as possible in as objective a manner as feasible?

There would obviously be different pages for different levels of elections right on down to the smallest local ones. And the site wouldn't solely present opinions, it would offer well-organized facts and history—indeed, if it was well-organized (and isn't “well-organization” exactly what great websites are great at?) such a site would put hard, undeniable information right at every individual's fingertips, short-circuiting the short-sighted spin-fest that is modern media politics.

It wouldn't be perfect (what is?) but if it could satisfy most people that the information being presented was being presented sincerely and credibly, then such a site would almost certainly become a pivotal force for yanking the present two-party system out from behind the safely-closed doors of "Mainstream Media" debate. Because it would allow a greater number of political voices to sit at the debate table (for those who weren't aware, that was also Ralph Nader's sole purpose for running for President—he admitted he didn't really want to win, he only wanted to force Tweedle Democrat & Tweedle Republican to respond to a specific list of critical issues that they were perpetually “agreeing to ignore” in the televised debates).

Such a system wouldn't actually be giving every single citizen a voice, of course, but in reality not every citizen can have or even wants a voice—and certainly it'd be far preferable to some gigantic, cumbersome, flame-throwing-free-for-all, “comments"-style site. And yes, certainly it would exclude those who aren't internet-enabled—but then again not so much. The internet is available for anybody who wants to seek it out. Also, the influence of such a system would act as a springboard to push important new voices and issues over to the passive-viewer airwaves as well, so even those who don't like to pro-actively pursue information for themselves would benefit from the rising din of voices that do.

Oh, and ultimately it would solve Gore's complaint in the above-mentioned book as well: such a system would return the candidate's focus from "image management" and "sound-bite platforming" toward a more reasonable campaign based on vision, ability and past-performance.

[slomo]

Information such as voting record is available on the web, e.g.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/congress

(I've figured out how to download large chunks of this database for analysis... I can share with anybody who's interested.)

This statement is not entirely true, although it could be made so with little effort: The internet is available for anybody who wants to seek it out. The problem with public workstations (e.g. at libraries) is that they're heavily loaded with nanny software that is likely to filter out anything useful, although this could be fixed with legislation.

[murph]

I think you are all off base. I agree with the original post that there is a large disconnect with the government, and for good reason. This disconnect was most likely a deliberate social maneuver by the elites or, at best, a by product of other maneuvering.

Before you get all excited about changing things by voting, I would suggest you take some very hard looks at the political philosophy that is prevailing in our government especially, and world wide generally. To talk seriously about voting changing anything indicates to me that you have no real understanding of what you are up against. What we are experiencing in our government is extreme Machiavellian and Straussian concepts in governance. You will also notice that the two parties are virtually of the same mind, the differences are not about governance, but about social manipulation. What we see today is the result of the blending of extreme liberal economic policies and Fascist ideology. The only way this would be changed is by a very high social agreement on what needs to be changed and how to do it. That simply is not going to happen when the media is nearly completely controlled by corporations that don’t give a damn about you or your concerns.

The reality of our situation is worrisome at best. Better start to think more along the lines of duck and cover instead of motivation to vote. We are not living in a country that adheres to laws nor to any resemblance to moral values at all. Everything is fair game for manipulation to preserve the power structure. We are not and have not for some time, been living in a democratic country. We are a democracy in name only.

Sorry folks, but the preponderance of evidence out there says you are whistling in the wind. Ideology is fine, but reality has a way of intruding into ideology. It would take a mass uprising to change what has developed over about 150 years in this country. Do some research, study historical records. Get ready to become toast.

[p]

I thought very highly of 'The American Soul', I have never seen anyone else try to reconcile the mythic, ideal America of freedom, equality, and liberty with the historical reality.

I hope to read more of Needleman.

[Bigelow]

Murph has it about right. The parties are controlled. Media is the government cheerleader. "Campaign Finance Reform" is controlled. The voting machine software is secret and privately controlled. Lively debate is only permitted within narrow inconsequential topics. Propaganda is embedded in us from birth till we die. Why is it o.k. for us to tell the world what to do? Because we are special! Democracy passed on after 1886 and "Southern Pacific Railroad vs. Santa Clara County"; corporations gained more rights than humans.

"WE HAVE COME TO ONE OF THE WORST RULED, ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETELY CONTROLLED AND DOMINATED GOVERNMENTS IN THE CIVILIZED WORLD – NO GOVERNMENT BY FREE OPINION, NO LONGER A
GOVERNMENT BY CONVICTION AND THE VOTE OF THE MAJORITY, BUT A GOVERNMENT BY OPINION AND THE DURESS OF SMALL GROUPS OF DOMINANT MEN." -- PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON

[michael]

I talso might have been taken word for word from Neil Postman's 1985 Amusing Ourselves to Death. In fact, much of Gores thesis and supporting arguments for the book as well as previous speeches in the preceding 2 years very closely mirror Postman's excellent analysis. Either way, I hope people read one, or the other or both, but in truth, I don't think much of this approach was original Al. And if anyone reads either and thinks it is about Al or continues beleiving either of the 2 party monopolies represent anything but madness, missed the point.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death