Democracy has an Achilles Heel. Participation by ordinary people, empowered to vote in elections and referenda, is a plus. Political leaders are compelled, by virtue of the democratic system, to take heed of the people. Policy design, in theory, should be towards a public good and in the national interest, as opposed to say, the interests of an oligarchic group.
Participation is also a downside, for as democracies mature, often settling into a stable two-party system, the people tire of the tricks and postures of politicians, a class who every few years must go cap in hand to them for another term. It is not hard to see how this kind of relationship can lead to cynicism and an increasing playing to crass material or nativist instincts.
It may sound elitist but, in as much as democracy brings out the best in individuals, it also brings out the worst in populations. There is no obligation to develop an informed opinion about an issue before voting, never mind expressing a view. It is fine apparently to have half-formed views based on lies or mistruths, to indulge in fanciful conspiracy theories, to deny facts or promote brazen self-interest.
Perhaps because all systems tend towards disorder (if not persuaded otherwise by renewal) democracy may need an overhaul every generation or so. Complacency can be challenged by well-directed reform.
Below is a link to an excellent article which touches on some of the themes I have raised, though in greater depth and with impressive erudition.
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/america-becomes-what-its-founders-feared-16000
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
My first response to the exit of Britain from the EU is to repost this excellent FT missive by Nicholas Barrett, a text that has been quite extensively reposted elsewhere in the wake of the vote. It reads:
"A quick note on the first three tragedies of the British vote to leave the EU. I wrote this on Facebook in the small hours in the wake of the result and it went slightly viral so I thought I would share it here.
Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term from the dearth of jobs and investment. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another one.
Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors.
Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said ‘the British people are sick of experts’ he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has lead to anything other than bigotry.
Oh, and one other thing. It looks as if the UK will now lose Northern Ireland and Scotland, both of which voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU. When the Financial Times endorsed the Conservative party in the 2015 election the headline was “The compelling case for continuity in Britain”.
If you’re interested in my thoughts on what this means for the world in general, you can read my recent essay on the growing popularity of destructive ideas."
My second is to note my own serious alarm at what seems like a huge gamble by UK voters, one in which many were apparently unaware of the power that their vote wielded. This was not a parliamentary election in which ones vote may or may not carry any practical weight, but a 50/50 in/out plebicite with far-reaching consequences.
Daily now I am reading interviews with folks who voted to exit the EU but who were not in full possession of the facts, had failed to avail themselves of the facts or who couldn't really care about the facts. One female voter said that she had no interest in politics but had voted out because that was what her similarly disinterested friends were doing. So why vote at all, I might have replied, in a vote in which politics was a fundamental aspect of the circumstances of the referendum?
There was a case for leaving the EU, but it was a narrow and fraught one (such as the trade off between full sovereignty and the economic benefit) and this should have been litigated by all concerned.
Soon enough, Scotland will hold a new referendum and I suspect will leave the United Kingdom. Such are the unintended consequences of the rising English nativism.
"A quick note on the first three tragedies of the British vote to leave the EU. I wrote this on Facebook in the small hours in the wake of the result and it went slightly viral so I thought I would share it here.
Firstly, it was the working classes who voted for us to leave because they were economically disregarded and it is they who will suffer the most in the short term from the dearth of jobs and investment. They have merely swapped one distant and unreachable elite for another one.
Secondly, the younger generation has lost the right to live and work in 27 other countries. We will never know the full extent of the lost opportunities, friendships, marriages and experiences we will be denied. Freedom of movement was taken away by our parents, uncles, and grandparents in a parting blow to a generation that was already drowning in the debts of our predecessors.
Thirdly and perhaps most significantly, we now live in a post-factual democracy. When the facts met the myths they were as useless as bullets bouncing off the bodies of aliens in a HG Wells novel. When Michael Gove said ‘the British people are sick of experts’ he was right. But can anybody tell me the last time a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism has lead to anything other than bigotry.
Oh, and one other thing. It looks as if the UK will now lose Northern Ireland and Scotland, both of which voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU. When the Financial Times endorsed the Conservative party in the 2015 election the headline was “The compelling case for continuity in Britain”.
If you’re interested in my thoughts on what this means for the world in general, you can read my recent essay on the growing popularity of destructive ideas."
My second is to note my own serious alarm at what seems like a huge gamble by UK voters, one in which many were apparently unaware of the power that their vote wielded. This was not a parliamentary election in which ones vote may or may not carry any practical weight, but a 50/50 in/out plebicite with far-reaching consequences.
Daily now I am reading interviews with folks who voted to exit the EU but who were not in full possession of the facts, had failed to avail themselves of the facts or who couldn't really care about the facts. One female voter said that she had no interest in politics but had voted out because that was what her similarly disinterested friends were doing. So why vote at all, I might have replied, in a vote in which politics was a fundamental aspect of the circumstances of the referendum?
There was a case for leaving the EU, but it was a narrow and fraught one (such as the trade off between full sovereignty and the economic benefit) and this should have been litigated by all concerned.
Soon enough, Scotland will hold a new referendum and I suspect will leave the United Kingdom. Such are the unintended consequences of the rising English nativism.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
There is a growing bigness afoot. Even as processors for computers have grown smaller and our capacity to store vast troves of information has increased, to the extent that whole libraries can fit on the head of a pin, enlargement is all around.
Cars now are taller, wider and just more massive, resembling at times military or farming vehicles. From my little Hyundai Getz, the view is constantly obscured by these barrel-butted behemoths. Parking spaces are filled entirely by these beasts, nominally known as SUV's. Alas, they are not sporty (more bulky, as if they take steroids with the petrol) and I would seriously question their utility, which is practically the same as any old sedan.
Meal sizes have been up for some time largely due to the explosion of fast and convenience foods. Visit any shopping plaza food court and you are in the midst of oversized and overpackaged choice, though that choice is often between a jaw-dropping plate of fish and chips, or a combination burger/chicken/add food group meal with upsizing options. As shoppers pass by with their tottering trays of food items, I feel like leaning across and snatching the odd fry, if only to save them from themselves.
Finally, people are bigger. Taller, weightier, bigger-seated, amply-proportioned, spread-out- many now have access to the kinds of calories that once only graced the tables of the wealthy and the high born. But all can share in the modern feast and have change from $10. Wither it is all leading, I know not.
ps. Oh yes, mobile phones, which for a time were shrinking, have joined the super-size revolution.
Cars now are taller, wider and just more massive, resembling at times military or farming vehicles. From my little Hyundai Getz, the view is constantly obscured by these barrel-butted behemoths. Parking spaces are filled entirely by these beasts, nominally known as SUV's. Alas, they are not sporty (more bulky, as if they take steroids with the petrol) and I would seriously question their utility, which is practically the same as any old sedan.
Meal sizes have been up for some time largely due to the explosion of fast and convenience foods. Visit any shopping plaza food court and you are in the midst of oversized and overpackaged choice, though that choice is often between a jaw-dropping plate of fish and chips, or a combination burger/chicken/add food group meal with upsizing options. As shoppers pass by with their tottering trays of food items, I feel like leaning across and snatching the odd fry, if only to save them from themselves.
Finally, people are bigger. Taller, weightier, bigger-seated, amply-proportioned, spread-out- many now have access to the kinds of calories that once only graced the tables of the wealthy and the high born. But all can share in the modern feast and have change from $10. Wither it is all leading, I know not.
ps. Oh yes, mobile phones, which for a time were shrinking, have joined the super-size revolution.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Meanwhile in Australia, we are in the last two weeks of an elongated election campaign for the Federal Parliament. I confess that I have not been watching too closely, not beyond the odd newspaper piece, opinion poll or pundit debate on the TV. I have been of the opinion since long before the election was called that the Government, which I do not support, will be comfortably returned. I see no reason to revise this view, even if the polls show a closer-than-expected race.
One odd thing has happened though. I have received three automated telephone polls in the last fortnight. I have never, ever been polled before and I have long wondered who actually was being polled, since I don't recall anyone who has confessed to it. Yes, three polls, all asking my voting intentions in the seat of Macquarie. We are a marginal seat with a 4.50% swing required, (though the intentions of the the majority of Blue Mountains folk are rendered void by the nefarious activities of that ghastly crew of aspirationals in the nether regions of the electorate), but it is a comfortable marginal in this election.
Australia is a place of relatively dull politics, save 1975. And I suppose that is not such a bad thing, given the alternatives.
One odd thing has happened though. I have received three automated telephone polls in the last fortnight. I have never, ever been polled before and I have long wondered who actually was being polled, since I don't recall anyone who has confessed to it. Yes, three polls, all asking my voting intentions in the seat of Macquarie. We are a marginal seat with a 4.50% swing required, (though the intentions of the the majority of Blue Mountains folk are rendered void by the nefarious activities of that ghastly crew of aspirationals in the nether regions of the electorate), but it is a comfortable marginal in this election.
Australia is a place of relatively dull politics, save 1975. And I suppose that is not such a bad thing, given the alternatives.
If I lived in Britain, I am sure that I would be miffed occasionally by silly, constraining or misfitting rules that emanate from the centre, in Brussels. I am certain that I would be dubious about a multi-national body trumping my own Parliament in Westminster, suspicious at a loss of national identity and perhaps even, when dark emotion was allowed to rise and rule, worried about immigration.
But it is unlikely, in the cool light of a rational-thinking dawn, that I would vote to leave the EU. The benefits that membership have brought to the British economy are difficult to count. Being the citizen of a many-nationed entity allows huge opportunity, not only for work and play, but for the very idea of being. Seventy years ago Europe was embroiled in the second great conflagration in a generation and the European project was an attempt to foreclose on a third chapter. Britain joined a little later and at a time when the British economy and prestige was historically low. Today Britain punches well above its weight and has a relatively robust economy. But half its population are toying with the idea of going it alone, even when the risks are so clearly evident, not only for a diminished Britain, but for a potentially broken United Kingdom.
I hope that good sense prevails.
But it is unlikely, in the cool light of a rational-thinking dawn, that I would vote to leave the EU. The benefits that membership have brought to the British economy are difficult to count. Being the citizen of a many-nationed entity allows huge opportunity, not only for work and play, but for the very idea of being. Seventy years ago Europe was embroiled in the second great conflagration in a generation and the European project was an attempt to foreclose on a third chapter. Britain joined a little later and at a time when the British economy and prestige was historically low. Today Britain punches well above its weight and has a relatively robust economy. But half its population are toying with the idea of going it alone, even when the risks are so clearly evident, not only for a diminished Britain, but for a potentially broken United Kingdom.
I hope that good sense prevails.
Saturday, June 04, 2016
Last weekend I went to Canberra to sing with my choir in a mass choral event at the High Court. The trip down was difficult with strong gusts buffeting my car most of the way. I should have made more stops than the obligatory Goulburn rest break, but seeing Suzanne's car so close to me on the highway upon leaving Narellan made me a little competitive. And of course, that's just plain stupid. Cue arrival in Canberra feeling exhausted!
The show itself, two days later, in the cavernously-open reception of the High Court, a building of modernist pretensions (seas of windows, swirls and flats of concrete), was wonderful. There is a very special feeling when a large group of people sing together, the act itself having a therapeutic, perhaps even spiritual dimension. Its communality is something that humans respond to on a very deep level.
The place was packed with supporters and the program was diverse enough to keep the interest for the hour or so. Kudos to the dynamic Rachel Hore whose direction and energy were fundamental factors in the success of the concert.
Where would we be without song?
The tenor:
The rehearsal:
The program:
The show itself, two days later, in the cavernously-open reception of the High Court, a building of modernist pretensions (seas of windows, swirls and flats of concrete), was wonderful. There is a very special feeling when a large group of people sing together, the act itself having a therapeutic, perhaps even spiritual dimension. Its communality is something that humans respond to on a very deep level.
The place was packed with supporters and the program was diverse enough to keep the interest for the hour or so. Kudos to the dynamic Rachel Hore whose direction and energy were fundamental factors in the success of the concert.
Where would we be without song?
The tenor:
The rehearsal:
The program:
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