[OT] TV, Internet, and Democracy

[Scott Elcomb]

On 5/22/07, JoeHill <joehill-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> Scott Elcomb left a post-it on the fridge:

I did?  Cool!

> > While the book isn't out yet, I'd be curious to hear what
> > reviews/thoughts tluggers might have for this particular excerpt.  My
> > personal preference would be to discuss on-list (to encourage valuable
> > communication amongst a primarily Canadian readership) but at the same
> > time, I'm not connected to the administration of TLUG either.  Please
> > use your judgment (and respect that of the GTALUG administration) and,
> > as always, feel free to send comments to me directly.
>
> Cool! Now to reassert myself as the list's resident Crazy.

REASSERT: 200 OK.  ;-)

> Hrm, well, after seeing An Inconvenient Truth and watching Gore on shows like
> The Daily Show, it's hard not to like the guy, and believe that he's basically a
> decent person.
>
> Then I remember how he answered the question about why he and Clinton bombed a
> pharmaceuticals factory in Sudan, leading to the preventable deaths of millions
> and eventually the chaos that we are seeing today. That, and many other things
> that Gore presided over as VP, were certainly much more than 'assaults on
> reason'.

Well, I'm not familiar (afaik) with that particular event, but I
suppose as VP he would've had his hands in some ugly things.  I was
impressed with An Inconvenient Truth, but that's about the extent of
what I know about him.

> Okay, let bygones be bygones, right?
>
> Seeing what Gore has to say in this excerpt, I can't help but wonder what the
> heck the rest of the book is about. Not that I don't doubt it's all perfectly
> valid, it's just not terribly original in terms of the concept, from what I can
> see. It sounds much like a book by Ben Agger, 'The Decline of Discourse', and
> I'm sure many other books.
>
> Noam Chomsky has written extensively on the idea that fact-based approaches to
> discourse are and have been under attack for quite some time, and that the
> twentieth century has merely seen the escalation of the 'manufacturing of
> consent'.

Thanks for the additional references.  I think I'd like to look around
for some of these works.

> Then I see something that absolutely delights me whenever it pops up: Al Gore
> talking about the internet. Wheeeeeeee!
>
> Okay, yes, bloggers and sites like Slate and Alternet are overtaking TV news
> when it comes to drawing the attention of middle class post-literate dweebs
> like me, but the people who have been truly left out of the democratic process,
> if our process can even legitimately be called that, are also the people who
> are highly unlikely to have a broadband connection; and even if they are
> connected, what good is it going to do them when they've been deliberately
> disenfranchised on voting day, again a concept with which Gore should be very
> very familiar.
>
> The revolution will be online, quite probably, but Al Gore will have nothing to
> do with it.

For the most part, I agree with you.  It still leaves the problem of
how effective TV advertising is though.

Thanks for your thoughts Joe.  Most appreciated.  =)

-- 
Scott Elcomb

"Our Founders' faith in the viability of representative democracy
rested on their trust in the wisdom of a well-informed citizenry,
their ingenious design for checks and balances, and their belief that
the rule of reason is the natural sovereign of a free people." - Al
Gore (The Assault on Reason, 2008)

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  - Benjamin Franklin

'"A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting
on its shoes."  - Mark Twain
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