19 May 2012
Tom Bellinson
“Our forefathers were smart guys. Back then, your average citizen didn’t have much in the way of education or book learning. Most of the ideas they had came from practical knowledge handed down by their families. Books were still expensive to print and in short supply and people like Ben Franklin printed their ideas in pamphlets that were usually not distributed very widely. With literacy rates being what they were, most people got that information second or third hand.
They knew that a true democracy would never work because people could never be expected to invest the effort to know enough to make informed decisions about all the issues. So, they formed a representative government. People could invest the time to learn the character and operating principles of the candidates and, once selected, they had their way. Back then, it was not uncommon for the richest drunks to get into office. They could buy drinks for the most voters (all men). People drank all day (even at work). It was important.
Fast forward to today. Drinking is still important, but politicians can no longer afford the old methods. Furthermore, literacy and availability of information about issues is higher than anyone could have imagined back in the 1700’s. However, our world has gotten incredibly complex. There are so many interacting moving parts that even experts in a particular field regularly get it wrong. We pick people to represent us, but those people have unprecedented access to our thoughts. There’s an interesting feedback loop.
The flaw is that “we, the people” cannot be trusted to have good opinions. We are usually selective about where we go for our information. Some of us may listen only to Fox News, while others only listen to Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert on Comedy Central. Getting news like this is the same as hearing one side of a debate and determining the winner. The side you heard has a distinct advantage.
It’s no wonder our politicians are polarized. Our opinions aren’t very nuanced. The Internet is starting to cloud this. Even the Drudge Report might be infiltrated by some non-conservative ideas here and there. A link to another article leads to a link to another article and next thing you know, someone is getting a balanced view of an issue. Scary business. But, there are still a limited number of people who will spend the time to become informed on a few topics, let alone many.
Until our brains get a lot bigger, we must still hope that the people we ask to represent us have done their homework. Once we put them in place, we don’t really have a say unless we mobilize in large numbers to express our opinion. It’s usually one of those polarized sources like moveon.org or Fox News that put us up to it anyway. I’m not sure our opinions are to be trusted. Let’s hope we chose wisely.”
