In a democracy, the people of the nation set the course and direction. Even if the execution of the people's will is managed by representatives, it is the people who bear the ultimate burden of responsibility for choosing those representatives.
In light of the destructive capabilities of the American armed forces, this is a very serious responsibility on the part of Americans, that must not be tampered with in any circumstance.
But here is exactly how that responsibility is being tampered with:
1.) Government secrecy. Government secrecy prevents the people from seeing what it is that their government is doing. Under this administration, that secrecy has been greatly increased. This greatly decreases the accountability of these representatives of ours. Ironically, this government has at the same time decreased privacy, increasing your accountability to the government.
2.) The monopoly of media. The will of the people is only as good as the information they have. Those who own the sources of news, are those who set the path that this country will take. These sources are now in the hands of a very few. The owners of these medias have continually demonstrated how they are willing to interfere with, and compromise the integrity of the journalists whose job it is to provide fair and accurate reporting. They have also demonstrated their willingness to shut out completely the representation of a point of view held by a large portion of the people. Overwhelming evidence of these two types of acts is evidence that their purpose is not to inform, but to sell and win support for their point's of view.
3.) Removal of dissent. When the regular avenues of expression are limited, such as in the case of a monopoly of media, the alternatives that remain include holding public demonstrations. The rights of protesters to hold their demonstrations are being gravely threatened by recently passed legislation. The removal of dissent promises to reach an even new height with the passing of new legislation.
4.) The expectation of patriotism. In a democracy, it is up to the government to remain loyal to the views of the people. It is not up to the people to remain loyal to the views of the government. Patriotism is not a democratic concept. It is the concept of an authoritarian dictatorship. The laws allowing people to be secretly investigated for "not being patriotic" are being greatly increased. These people will be subject to a much greater invasion of their privacy.
5.) Deliberate disinformation campaigns. In this latest war, we have seen a great deal of what was called "Psy-ops". This was done in the name of making the Iraqis believe that they had lost the war, and making the Iraqi leadership believe that their people had turned against them, so as to reduce the amount of fighting that the Americans had to do. This disinformation was provided to the Iraqis via international media outlets. Unfortunately, the American people were also "in the line of fire" for this disinformation. Countless times during the course of this war, and even in the year(s) leading up to it, we had seen false or misleading news stories that were quietly retracted days later. The net effect of these deliberately false news stories, was that they provided justification for the war itself. Is it right, in a democracy, for a government to sell it's policy to its own people through means of deception?
6.) The selling of government policy. In a democracy, the government must never play a role in selling it's policies and agendas to its people. Democracy is the opinions of the people shaping the policies and agendas of the government. But in this administration, we are seeing the birth of a new agency devoted to selling the policies and agendas of America. It is done under the name of selling it internationally, but as with "psy-ops" disinformation, the American people are subjected to this as all are part of the "international audience". For selling the war on the Iraqi people, this agency received $300 Million! By comparison, there has never been an election where that much was spent in campaigning. Should we subject Bush to campaign finance limits when he does this to us?
In recent times, we have seen all of these elements in play more strongly than they have ever been. We have even seen a sort of synergy between them, such as Bush trading the right for media to form a tighter monopoly (News Corp buys DirecTV) for the removal of dissent (Fox News). Such as the expectation of patriotism (the Patriot Act I & II) being used to remove dissent (Its anti-protesting laws). Government secrecy (removing access to deported suspects) being used to wage a disinformation campaign (that they were terrorists).
They have clearly gotten this all down to a science: The science of corrupting democracy. And they are willing to use their methods at whatever the cost to democracy.
So let us leave democracy for what it is: a failed utopian concept, that was proven too easily corrupted by those who could afford to control the media. Let us move away from our utopian efforts to create a perfect society with police and military. Let the chips fall where they may, and let us evolve in the imperfect society of Anarchy.
www.geocities.com/froggisarmi/JFA.htm
The Structure of the Corruption of Democracy
By David Bright Morning
froggisarmi@yahoo.com
Posted on the Independent Newswire on 16 April 2003.
Ref: www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=312720&group=webcast
