The Null Device

Election-night musings

One thing we can thank George W. Bush for is that apathy is no longer hip. After September 11, conservative pundits went on at length about the "death of irony" and a rising New Earnestness of getting behind your leaders, doing as you're told and, if you disagree with the national consensus, keeping your mouth shut. They were only partly right; something did die out, though it wasn't disobeying one's elders and betters, but rather apathy; the grunge-slacker "yeah, whatever" that resonated throughout the 1990s has gone from the height of cool to the political equivalent of living in a trailer and sleeping with one's cousins. Not caring about issues is just not cool anymore.

The facts haven't changed: the US democratic system is centralised and structured in such a way to keep the levers of control well out of the reach of people. Both parties (and there are only two parties in US federal politics; thanks to the first-past-the-post system, the others cannot be more than spoilers) are primarily beholden to gigantic corporations and special interests. (Big Copyright is to the Democrats what Big Oil is to the Republicans; if Kerry wins, for example, reversing the Betamax precedent will probably be high on his corporate constituents' wishlist). Meanwhile, democratic governments sign more and more of their sovereignty over to unelected multinational bodies, as part of the "Golden Straitjacket" of globalisation. However, on the other hand, party discipline in US Congress is a lot less rigid than in Westminster-style parliaments such as Australia's; some political scientists claim that the US parties are best thought of as umbrella groups of unofficial sub-parties.

What has changed is the realisation that, even though powerful interests exert enormous influence, they are buffeted by public opinion, and an informed, activist public (or even a well-organised non-apathetic minority) can exert enough pressure to keep things in check. With enough awareness of issues, and the decentralised organising power of the Network Age, they can agitate for reforms; with awareness of the power of the media and the manipulability of reported facts, and decentralised means of communication, all of a sudden the Murdochs of this world are not the almighty kingmakers they seemed to be.

It is my hope that, in the foreseeable future, we could see the rise of a new golden age of public awareness and activism, where the public wakes from its sleep and demands, in no uncertain terms, more accountability from their leaders, and the devolution of decision-making power to be within closer reach of the public.

There are 2 comments on "Election-night musings":

Posted by: greatcathy http:// Mon Nov 8 07:04:24 2004

hmmmmm......

Posted by: Tory Ben http:// Mon Nov 8 12:50:53 2004

Would you really want a public made up of noisy activists/demigouges running things? While most of us watch at a distance with amusement as these fringe types carry on about homosexual marriages and only being allowed to eat what you can grow in your community plot and these sort of things, imagine if they became law? We could expect people suspected of looking at children the wrong way being lynched in the street, pretty much everything being banned and the treasury being quickly emptied by the increases in unempoyment benefits for all those networkers with nothing better to do with their time...

Bring back Thatcher I say.