[Air-l] Petition Tony Blair, online that is

[Paula]

I've always supported direct democracy (aka extra-parliamentary action)
fairly unconditionally, but have been viewing recent developments with
some personal trepidation--largely confirmed by a brief glance at the
most popular petitions on this site.

Government-by-focus-group is scary enough. Its full-blown form of
"participatory democracy" seems to consist of the government giving
Murdoch free reign to warp the minds of middle-England  into a highly
manipulable mess of fear and loathing, and then employ an army of
consultants at forty quid per hour to ask its opinion before framing
mountains of half-baked, knee-jerk crowd-pleasing legislation and
appointing ever-encroaching armies of half-educated QA bureaucrats to
ensure that everyone's full attention is on massaging metrics rather
than healing the sick, teaching the young etc etc . . . This ain't
accountability, it's collective insanity.

What can you do? 90% of the population apparently has the sense to
oppose war in Iraq, but would also dump asylum seekers in prison ships,
repeal race relations and gender equality legislation, string up
paedophiles, ban sex education and force institutions to set up
surveillance of political discussion in British universities--and is
apparently more concerned about preserving the right of the rump of the
feudal ruling class to chase foxes around in archaic dress before
ripping them apart alive than it is about anything else!!!

I went to one of those wretched expert panel thingies they have at
Portcullis house a while back where the Liberal MP chairing the thing
took the view that government wasn't keen on ICT because it would blow
the wind of change up their trousers. Can't remember what he said
exactly but there was frequent reference to "government silos" in there
. . . Personally, I'd love to open up the silos of government, but that
isn't the apparent effect of all this "participation". Everyone's
systems seem to be under scrutiny except for those at Westminster and
Pall Mall.

Sorry for this blast of cynicism, but  grafting "participatory
democracy" onto our secretive feudal parliament, "marketised" and
monopolised media institutions and chaotic education system may have
rather unstable results . . . When a right-wing demagogue owns most
popular media, habeas corpus has been suspended, and the secret service,
army and police are apparently somewhat to the left of government *and*
the tabloid readership, it's time to be afraid.

But maybe I misjudge my countrypersons--perhaps they will drag their
attention from  headscarves, foxes, and paedophiles and lobby for
anti-trust legislation to protect genuine press freedom, for greater
social equality, responsible trade, effective action to protect the
world's resources and all-round quality of life, protest at the erosion
of civil freedoms and political tolerance, the suppression of
independent media and the demonisation of a proportion of our
population. I'm not holding my breath though.
 
But, having said all that, I still support this kind of independent
initiative. It's not only a failure on the part of governments to deploy
digital democracy effectively but also a failure on the left to
modernise and effectively develop and disseminate critical thinking.
Activists often don't make good use of ICT either. At least these guys
are *trying*!

It's important to resist the pompous conclusion drawn in some quarters
of Britain's ruling elite that the idea of popular sovereignty is passe.
Populations can expect to be "consulted" (at huge expense) but need to
bite down on the "fact" that life is now too complex for them to
understand and they are not in control. This smacks of the reasons the
ruling class gave to resist universal (male) emancipation--that
non-property-owners were too thick to understand what's going on (if I
may paraphrase). The problem is not that political economy now passes
all understanding (it always did!) but that people are being
misinformed, manipulated and increasingly disempowered by complex
practices which have been largely effective at securing mass compliance
with high dubious corporate agendas. 

Paula

 






Heidelberg, Chris wrote:
> Looks more like old time ancient Greek democracy to me. Whoa! Isn't the
> UK supposed to be a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary form of
> government? Imagine if this catches on in other countries...say like the
> United States...oh no it real participatory government from the
> masses...aka mob rule. Just a humorous yet profound thought on my part. 
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
> [mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Wainer Lusoli
> Sent: Friday, November 17, 2006 7:56 AM
> To: apsa_itp at lists.hmdc.harvard.edu; air-l at listserv.aoir.org
> Subject: [Air-l] Petition Tony Blair, online that is
>
> http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/
>
> Still rubbing my eyes in disbelief
>
> Any thoughts, anyone?
>
> Wainer
>
>
> --------------------------------------------
> Wainer Lusoli
> http://www.lusoli.info
> http://del.icio.us/lusoli
> http://www.i-pol.org
> --------------------------------------------
>
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