The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter.
Winston Churchill
Friday, April 20, 2007
Quote for week 15th to 21st of April '07
The best argument against democracy is a five minute talk with the average voter.
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6 comments:
Following your quote on the Internet I came across this excellent article.
The finale speaks for itself : "So, perhaps Churchill had it only slightly wrong. Maybe the truth is that the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average get—out—the—vote drive organizer."
The article is well written and indeed excellent in many parts, but I do not share ENTIRELY the author's views. He is missing part(s) of the story. I already gave you a comment to the related post on your blog that touches on several issues I do not necessarily agree with. The link is here
Good point and we're practically thinking the same. As long as pushing people to vite as a stimulus for them to get interested in politics and ultimately in what will happen to them, to get informed and make a choice based on their conclusions, it's a godd thing, I was saying exactly the same. What I think it's a total load of bullshit (sorry for the language) is for ignorant or uninformed or uninterested people to be manipulated into voting for one candidate or another in a "rock the vote"-like MTV campaign.
As far as educated people say "pass" it's intriguing and I'll search for some material since I have a lot of examples and I'm interested in the topic.
Sure, although it is difficult to claim that all these groups that want to get people out there to vote (all people, they do not aim to the ignorant :-)) have some malicious intentions. No doubt, such methods can be now and then be considered strategical, but I'd say that most such groups are simply concerned about the low turnout in general. Most of the time surprinsingly low. And this is not so much the rational voter paradox (my own vote will not make the difference, so why go to vote), but a general apathy and lack of interest and this is what can also be very well exploited by various groups (elite groups, after all, although I would like to reserve the "elite" term for more positive associations :-)) that aim to be in power as much as possible but fear they lack general approuval of the population.
So, again, it is really not that easy, this article you pointed out makes some excellent points, but also misses many others...
This being said, I turn to the meaning I am interested in from Churchill's quote: indeed the level of awareness of sensible political realities is rather primitive in the population and that even in very developped states. Extremely low in our own dear Romania, very unfortunately. I am in fact more and more surprised how very much my political reasoning differs from some of my acquitances from inside Romania. So I had to get Sir Churchill from the closet to better state my grief :-). Of course Churchill liked to be more pessimistic in prose than he actually was in reality. So am I. But, as we well know, keep expectations low :-).
Well, in a sense it's the same for me, but I myself am still in the process of building my political reasoning. Nevertheless awareness is low as you said, therefore the risks of manipulation are high:)
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