Any political scientist who believes that our current system of democracy is working generally well should work in customer relations for at least six months to shatter this delusion. Grade school teaches us that our democracy works well because we have elections every few years and that we can get rid of leaders that we don't like. Is that what democracy is all about? Simple elections? We have a population that is so ill-informed about the issues or even how the system works that we actually allow this population base to decide the future for us all?
Well the current system prevents that. The bureaucracy in place informs the current leaders of what is possible and what is not based upon contracts and guarantees signed by previous administrations. The leaders just put a smile on and charismatically inform us that everything is going according to plan and then try to figure out how to budget the shrinking finances. The cynics among us say "business as usual" and nothing important changes. Election ads have little to no substance about any issue. Look at the latest conservative campaign against Michael. He was out of the country for x amount of years..... and that's relevant how? At least with Stephane they pointed out the internal flaws of Stephane's own claim.
So the current system prevents ill-informed voters from voting foolishly by keeping them in the dark with flashy ad campaigns, politicians which are more charismatic than intelligent so they can say nonsense and have the majority swoon over the way they said the pretty words. And whoever is in power has so many checks and balances that they can not make any sweeping change that would help society at large..... not that they could mobilize the population at large to support them. How can a rational explanation that takes 90 minutes to understand compete with the flashy catch phrase of an opponent?
I put too much emphasis on charisma over intelligence? Just look at the speeches from George as President of the US versus the speeches from Barack as President. The Daily Show showed half a dozen excerpts which had both George and Barack saying essentially the same thing. When George said it, he was arrogant and no one would listen to what he was saying.... Meanwhile, Barack says it and we are all enthralled at the wise words and how we should listen to his advice. These are the same people who vote who could not distinguish that both leaders of opposing political parties said essentially the same things about the same issues.
You don't agree with something? Base it upon the text, not upon the delivery of that text. Of course to do that we must change how our current system works. Why do people not bother with reading the text and focus on the feel-good of the charismatic catch-phrases to make decisions? Lack of time is the best answer. Democracy requires every voter to be aware of the issues and not rely upon 3rd party interpretations. The news companies are more interested in selling you the news with sensationalism than with genuine information. A car accident this morning is the latest headline news on this morning's news.... forget the fact that the American Congress is about to vote on a law which will give the police the right to invade your privacy without the consent of a Judge first..... we want to see the car accident..... its sensational, not boring.
Ask random people if they can tell you the latest gossip from TMZ or if they know what 60 minutes was about last week (assuming they even know the show "60 minutes"). A democracy needs its citizens to be informed and educated on the many issues at hand. Currently we work longer hours than peasants in the Middle Ages. The peasants in the Middle Ages did not have political responsibilities and had a lot of leisure time on their hands. We have political responsibilities and we spend most of our energy for the benefit of someone else's profit.... who I guarantee you takes his time to look at the political issues and determines what is best for his pocket book.... and he calls that work, yet this same employer denies us that same time to allow us to educate ourselves of the issues.
Comparison-->
Peasant, wakes up does the chores around the home which includes the farming and repairing stuff. In the end he gives a portion of his crop to the Landlord. No one asks his opinion about anything so the peasant does not need to be aware of decisions and he suffers the whims of his landlord.
Today's worker, wakes up and does chores (which are not tabulated as work) around the house to keep things clean and repairing personal stuff. Heads off to work which can take up to an hour to reach (still not tabulated as work), works "officially" (this is tabulated) for a set amount of time where his lunch is measured scientifically and his breaks are counted up to the second to avoid lost productivity. Then the worker finishes his day and heads back home, does more chores around the house (again not tabulated in the calculated work hours)..... The worker is then exhausted and spends the remaining time either A) on leisure to decompress from a hard day's work (this can be video games or television watching or music listening or even drinking at a bar with other workmates) or B) doing extracurricular work activities which are not paid for nor counted on actual work hours worked but that you need to do if you want that promotion... or even to avoid being laid off when the budget cuts force lay-offs.
Using the above comparison of the peasant in the Middle Ages versus today's worker.... who of the two would actually have the time to be properly informed or educated of the issues?
To make democracy work we have to remember that we are citizens. The communists believe that the workers should decide, the capitalists believe that the industrialist should decide. We are supposed to be in a democracy in which citizens should decide. We need time for education and leisure to have clear heads so that we can make proper decisions and anyone who thinks that this is innapropriate and lazy I will just point out the rich. The rich have the time for education and for leisure and they make the most out of it by making sure that their political ideals are pursued and they keep their opponents busy with slave labor.
Should the rich ever be forced to work like the poor do, we would see them protesting loudly. As I have mentioned in previous blogs. We have the technology to work less hours and still maintain our lifestyle. Perhaps we would have 50% less choices in consumer products but we would definitely be in a democracy where we educate ourselves, we would have a proper leisure time to enjoy our consumer products and we would know how to vote based upon the issues and not upon the charismatic catch phrases.
My source comes from the Wikipedia entry where it shows 13th century male peasant working annually 1620 hours while it shows Canada in 2004 working 1717 hours and the USA working 1777 hours. Just remember; first, the peasants were not under the yoke of Taylorism where working was scientifically measured to the second and secondly, the peasants would be considered at work even when repairing one's own house while our 2004 measurements are only based upon "official" hours under some employer....
Isn't technology supposed to make us more free? Are we not supposedly in a democracy as opposed to the illusion of one? Does it not seem that we are more under the yoke of an employer who gives us an illusion of choice by voting for nonsense every few years?
If democracy is to work as it is supposed to, then we need the tools to insure and ensure its success. At this moment, we may be losing our democracy.... at least in North America.
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label democracy. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Friday, October 17, 2008
Consumer or Citizen?
In the perfect Capitalist world, Consumers make the decisions that matter to society. In the perfect Democratic world, Citizens make the decisions that matter to society. We are competing today as to which is the best way to make changes that will better our society. We are told that the Consumer's choice regulates the market and that we can pressure the big business to comply with our wishes. When Democracy was being introduced, we were taught that being a proper Citizen would enable the noblest of endeavors to be accomplished. Lets look at each to see which is better suited.
Consumers are faced with advertising which are not factual and as a result we have the saying of buyer beware. This warning gives us an illusion of choice between product A and B, once we scrutinize both, we will choose the better product. Here is an example how we, as consumers are sometimes not even given the choice between product A and B. Imagine you are a corner store owner, you have a small refrigerator that can only fit one product and you have to choose between both.
Product A is real juice, costs 40 cents to make and sells it to the store for 60 cents and asks the store to sell it for 1 dollar.... (the store owner makes a profit of 40 cents for each bottle sold).
Product B is flavored water that tastes like juice, costs 10 cents to make and sells it to the store for 30 cents and asks the store to sell it for 80 cents... (the store owner makes a profit of 50 cents for each bottle sold).
Now as a store owner, which bottle will you carry? You make more profit on the cheaper priced bottle, your competitor across the street will obviously carry the cheaper priced item and be able to afford snazzier advertising to attract the customer over to his store.... so you as a store owner will carry product B. Where is the Consumer's choice? All the corner stores in the neighborhood will carry the cheaper item and only the slightly bigger store may carry the alternate product.... Don't believe this example is credible? Why are dollar stores so successful then? The Consumer is thinking of his pocket book in the here and now, not in some unknowable future, so even if he buys a cheaper product that ruins his health or invests in the economy of another country at the expense of his own.... it doesn't matter, he has been making his decision as a Consumer.
The Citizen, as a contrast, must be educated and scrutinize decisions made or arguments that help to make decisions. To make Democracy work, the Citizen must not be lazy or exhausted. Our current consumer-oriented society offers the choice between easy spectacle (Hollywood Blockbuster with plenty of explosions) or out of the way film (Shakespearean type of literature). So the choice is between the "lets-allow-ourselves-to-take-a-ride-and-not-think" and the "this-literature-makes-me-think-about-issues-and-has-moved-me-deeply". The lazy in society will always choose the spectacle over the film, this makes for a lazy mind and makes propaganda that much more effective against the supposed responsible Citizen. The non-lazy Citizen will choose to see both, as someone who has a diet of meat and vegetables with the occasional sweet chocolate cake, of course this desire means more efforts must be made because the consumer society promotes the cheaper product as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
The exhausted Citizen is the one who is not given proper time to scrutinize the news, to engage in literature, to think. He comes home at night after working non-stop at some job (and trust me his own boss did not work as hard and was engaged in conversations with other bosses in society and within his own corporation to have a better view of the society in direct contrast to the worker who was not allowed to talk to anyone but to focus on the job in front of him). This individual which many call the working poor (because the salary doesn't place him above the poverty line) is too exhausted to scrutinize the news, to read literature, to think.... he can only recuperate with the spectacle, to take his mind off of his job temporarily.
Imagine how Democracy would be different if the Citizen was allowed to manifest himself. For approximately 8 hours in a day, this Citizen is not allowed to be a Citizen, he must follow orders and can not practice his duties as a proper Citizen. His immediate supervisor may also be exhausted but the decision makers of the corporation definitely take the time to concern themselves with what the society is doing. When the worker gets home exhausted, he spends whatever time he has to recuperate, to do chores around the house, to hear a very basic generality of what has happened in the world and then he sleeps to repeat the same pattern the next day. This Citizen is told that he is participating in Democracy because he takes some time off his recuperation time to go vote.... but year after year his immediate condition has not improved..... AND THE EXPERTS WONDER WHY THERE IS SUCH APATHY?
The solution offered to this exhausted Citizen is to become a Consumer, and we know where that will lead us.
We can afford to double our salary, cut the cost of living by half, reduce our daily work hours, reduce our weekly work days and increase our weekly vacation times in a year. The technology is there, the money is very well hidden but there. The political will is not there and the current rich won't abide or tolerate such a redistribution of wealth (even at the expense of their descendants as our society stagnates more and more each generation). I think that our Democracy can work if and only if we allow our Citizens the tools to make it work, even if we should have less luxury trinkets as the result.
Consumers are faced with advertising which are not factual and as a result we have the saying of buyer beware. This warning gives us an illusion of choice between product A and B, once we scrutinize both, we will choose the better product. Here is an example how we, as consumers are sometimes not even given the choice between product A and B. Imagine you are a corner store owner, you have a small refrigerator that can only fit one product and you have to choose between both.
Product A is real juice, costs 40 cents to make and sells it to the store for 60 cents and asks the store to sell it for 1 dollar.... (the store owner makes a profit of 40 cents for each bottle sold).
Product B is flavored water that tastes like juice, costs 10 cents to make and sells it to the store for 30 cents and asks the store to sell it for 80 cents... (the store owner makes a profit of 50 cents for each bottle sold).
Now as a store owner, which bottle will you carry? You make more profit on the cheaper priced bottle, your competitor across the street will obviously carry the cheaper priced item and be able to afford snazzier advertising to attract the customer over to his store.... so you as a store owner will carry product B. Where is the Consumer's choice? All the corner stores in the neighborhood will carry the cheaper item and only the slightly bigger store may carry the alternate product.... Don't believe this example is credible? Why are dollar stores so successful then? The Consumer is thinking of his pocket book in the here and now, not in some unknowable future, so even if he buys a cheaper product that ruins his health or invests in the economy of another country at the expense of his own.... it doesn't matter, he has been making his decision as a Consumer.
The Citizen, as a contrast, must be educated and scrutinize decisions made or arguments that help to make decisions. To make Democracy work, the Citizen must not be lazy or exhausted. Our current consumer-oriented society offers the choice between easy spectacle (Hollywood Blockbuster with plenty of explosions) or out of the way film (Shakespearean type of literature). So the choice is between the "lets-allow-ourselves-to-take-a-ride-and-not-think" and the "this-literature-makes-me-think-about-issues-and-has-moved-me-deeply". The lazy in society will always choose the spectacle over the film, this makes for a lazy mind and makes propaganda that much more effective against the supposed responsible Citizen. The non-lazy Citizen will choose to see both, as someone who has a diet of meat and vegetables with the occasional sweet chocolate cake, of course this desire means more efforts must be made because the consumer society promotes the cheaper product as mentioned in the previous paragraph.
The exhausted Citizen is the one who is not given proper time to scrutinize the news, to engage in literature, to think. He comes home at night after working non-stop at some job (and trust me his own boss did not work as hard and was engaged in conversations with other bosses in society and within his own corporation to have a better view of the society in direct contrast to the worker who was not allowed to talk to anyone but to focus on the job in front of him). This individual which many call the working poor (because the salary doesn't place him above the poverty line) is too exhausted to scrutinize the news, to read literature, to think.... he can only recuperate with the spectacle, to take his mind off of his job temporarily.
Imagine how Democracy would be different if the Citizen was allowed to manifest himself. For approximately 8 hours in a day, this Citizen is not allowed to be a Citizen, he must follow orders and can not practice his duties as a proper Citizen. His immediate supervisor may also be exhausted but the decision makers of the corporation definitely take the time to concern themselves with what the society is doing. When the worker gets home exhausted, he spends whatever time he has to recuperate, to do chores around the house, to hear a very basic generality of what has happened in the world and then he sleeps to repeat the same pattern the next day. This Citizen is told that he is participating in Democracy because he takes some time off his recuperation time to go vote.... but year after year his immediate condition has not improved..... AND THE EXPERTS WONDER WHY THERE IS SUCH APATHY?
The solution offered to this exhausted Citizen is to become a Consumer, and we know where that will lead us.
We can afford to double our salary, cut the cost of living by half, reduce our daily work hours, reduce our weekly work days and increase our weekly vacation times in a year. The technology is there, the money is very well hidden but there. The political will is not there and the current rich won't abide or tolerate such a redistribution of wealth (even at the expense of their descendants as our society stagnates more and more each generation). I think that our Democracy can work if and only if we allow our Citizens the tools to make it work, even if we should have less luxury trinkets as the result.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)