An informed electorate
US issues - - Posted on April, 1 at 5:39 pm by Ken L
I know we read about the wisdom of crowds, and keep being told that the people never get it wrong for long. I’ve yet to be convinced. I tend to be a Gustave Le Bon kind of guy when it comes to the mob:
“The unreal has about as much influence on them as the real…”
In support, I give you this example.
One would have thought, after having been subjected to an unprovoked attack by another nation, invaded and then occupied for several years, that the nation in question was poorly placed to do anybody else any damage. Particularly if you’re The Most Powerful Nation the World Has Ever Known and said nation is now nominally run by a government that keeps urging you to stay there as long as you like. Well it appears one would be wrong. More than one American in five has nominated Iraq as ‘the greatest U.S. enemy’. Maybe they think US troops are still fighting Saddam’s Elite Republican Guard to liberate Kuwait or something.
I wonder what these keen students of current affairs think should be done now to remove the threat posed by American enemy number 1. Obviously stern measures are called for. Only two million Iraqis have been forced to flee the country so far - less than 10% of the population, for god’s sake - so maybe attention should turn to speeding up the Iraqi diaspora. If only we can get 10 or 15 million of the bastards to piss off somewhere else, give the Kurds independence, and place the remainder under permanent house arrest, 22% of Americans might finally be able to sleep soundly at night without freaking out that Iraq is coming to get them.
It makes me pause to ponder whether a Gallup poll like this would even be conducted in any other country in the world. I can’t recall reading about Australians being asked who they rate as their number 1 enemy, or Indonesians, or Swedes. Yet somebody thinks it’s a useful poll in the country that spends more on armaments than the rest of the world put together. It bespeaks an insecurity that borders on paranoia.
It could have been worse I guess … at least nobody seems to have nominated Austria as the nation that features in their nightmares.
Posted in US issues |
April 1st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Maybe, just maybe, these 22% of Americans scratched their heads for 5 minutes because they couldn’t think of anyone, and figured that the Iraqis would be likely to be a threat since the Iraqis are pissed at having their land, sovereignty and oil taken from them.
I guess I have to accept the more likely scenario which is that the same people answered without pausing ‘IRAQ!!’.
Just ‘how’ the Iraqis would pose a threat to the US, I’m not sure.
Then again, the Iraqis have managed to kill more Americans than the 9-11 terrorists, with over 4000 to date. Maybe the respondents interpreted the question as ‘which foreign nationals will kill the most American nationals this year?’
The anti-Iran rhetoric must be working if fully one quarter of the American population evidently think that Iran will launch bombs or missiles or whatever over Europe or Asia all the way to the US.
I just fail to see how the US can feel worried by any gulf state. None of them, bar Israel, have any known nuclear arsenal. They have no known long range missile capabilities and what little armies they do have are better suited to intimate, guerilla style fighting within or slightly over their own borders.
Maybe the respondents were including Israel as the 51st American state.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Arguably the US ignorati as an uneducated class is the dumbest in the universe. I’ve met smarter uneducated people in the boondocks of Indonesia.
I blame their secondary education system (where generally they learn SFA about the rest of the world), false and moronic ideas of exceptionalism, corporatisation of the media, and religion. On the latter, for example, nearly 50% think evolution is wrong and the earth is some 6-10,000 years old. [Not to forget the effect of arsehole politicians like Bush and Fox news with its controlling arsewipe dear Rupert. And people like the late but unlamented Jerry Falwell who if given a prior enema could have been buried in a matchbox.]
Perhaps by comparison to religious beliefs in relation to evolution we should regard the 20% quoted re Iraq as a joy to behold.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
It’s hard to know where to place the blame, Peter.
The attached article did say that better educated people were less likely to cite Iraq as a threat to the US, but is it that they don’t want to know, or that they aren’t being told?
For instance no major US cable or satelite providers are making Al Jazeera English available in the US, so even if viewers wanted to seek another voice, they are effectively hindered from doing so. Al Jazeera is now effectively broadcasting on youtube, where it is the most watched new channel on the website.
Are dissenting voices being kept out because there is an agenda to stop them being heard, or is just that they wouldn’t be commercially viable?
It seems to me that not only are ignorant Americans particularly stupid, but they are also worryingly numerous.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Not commercially viable I would think Andrew, but then again I’d suggest the concentration of media into fewer hands has a lot to do with it. [can't have those Al Jazeera 'terr-ists' on our patch!]
And with the financial meltdown in progress certain stupidities like Iraq will be sheeted home, but again not to the wilfully stupid. I wonder who they will blame then? Probably god.
We live indeed in interesting times.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:43 pm
I think it is necessary for people when talking about Americans to be a little bit more tolerant of the average Joe,who on a personal basis maybe a likeable decent human being,but,could read blogs like this,go through the process of thinking he or she is copping to much criticism for being an American and unknown to the writer.Andrew Bartlett and myself sparred with Thordaddy who seemed a republican type,and I got round to liking him,although his opinions just werent well thought out,in my opinion,and in testing his opinion,which he seemed to not be overly concerned about,he did seek,to occasionally find something in common.Reluctantly,I felt a gap does exist between Australian attitudes and American ones,that is dramatised by the relevance or not of how one sees ones own patriotism as a alone citizen.Letters to the SMH as email in blogs like Jack Marx s indicated a gap between the powerful Communist-Democrats and Joe Blow.A frightening gap,a speechlessly frightening gap.That gap cannot be represented..it cannot trust words or even kind deeds,appearances are deceiving..it finds out by experience.Is readily intelligent.The Iranian government leader has made it quite clear the problem isnt the Joe Blows its the governments..Rudd befriending any powerful figure isnt doing any citizen of the U.S.A. a favour,think of how much time the average U.S.A.citizen can afford to be critically informed,if in fact,they know how to assess matters other than the obvious and immediate.The YouTube is full of great American enthusiasms and innovations,bear them the courtesy of recognising intelligence.I am not a pessimist,I am not an optimist,I am intentionally remaining outside any means to determine a general attitude.Joe Blow maybe unable to express some hopes and griefs particular to being an individual,and doesnt need being generalised into the mass of Americans.He or she is already part of that!?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
I know we read about the wisdom of crowds, and keep being told that the people never get it wrong for long. I’ve yet to be convinced.
I am with you all the way Ken. The collective masses are known as sheeple for a good reason. People can be bought, herded along and shorn like their fury cousins. The party with the most money generally wins the election. If I look at the history of mankind, where for centuries the towns folk would turn out cheering when a fellow human was burned on the stake, I am almost convinced there is no such thing as “wisdom of crowds”.
I can’t recall reading about Australians being asked who they rate as their number 1 enemy,
Just as an experiment though it would be an interesting question to ask. Who would Australians nominate as Australia’s No 1 enemy? I’m inclined to believe that Iraq would also rate somewhere in the upper ranks, or Afghanistan. The conservative Australian isn’t all that different to Americans. Been fighting shoulder to shoulder in every god damned war last century and, as Kevin has just reiterated, will do so for as long as there will be a nation called Australia.
Talking about Kevin, he reckons Iran is the biggest thread since sliced bread. And, being the Labor man, he is meant to be representing the lefty position. How paranoid can one get? With one half of the population having been Howard supporters, who designated Iraq as the biggest thread to world peace and the other half Kevin supporters, who chooses to nominate Iran (just to be different I suppose), where does this country stand? Not that far from the yanks, that much is clear.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Peter Kemp said: “Not commercially viable I would think Andrew, but then again I’d suggest the concentration of media into fewer hands has a lot to do with it.”
Exactly…not to mention the connection between that media and major industries & financial groups that benefit from “boom & bust” cycles & the escalation of War. Their relationship to Israel & the Gulf States also has a bearing on what makes PRIMETIME PROPOGANDA…and what doesn’t.
(I might add I wasn’t impressed w/ former World Bank president, James Wolfensohn, playing the role of apologist for Greenspan on our 7:30 Report tonite either…Hillary wants “blind-sided” & increasingly doddery Greenspan to return & do the “Cavalry to the rescue” bit…I ask you, 6 billion people on this Planet and we should continually recycle those who got us into these predicaments?…I think not)
There are plenty of Americans awakening to the deceit, dirty schemes & subterfuge that exists within their midst…fouls their politics and infects their media. You’ll always get those who suck on the “black & white” nipple of the Corporate Media…preferring a burger and milkshake approach to the news than in-depth analysis.
Hopefully plenty will watch John Cusack’s upcoming film, War. Inc.
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/John_Cusack_movie_takes_on_war_0329.html
John Cusack movie takes on war profiteers
David Edwards and Chris Tackett
Published: Saturday March 29, 2008
While explaining that the film shares similar themes as those found in Naomi Klein’s book, The Shock Doctrine, Cusack said, “the very core things that make up our government like wars or interrogation or border patrol, jailing, any of those types of things that you would think would be sacred things that would happen with the state are now being turned into for-profit enterprises. And if you want all these things to be, if you want corporate ethics to be our national interest, then you have the situation we’re in now. But right now, when you think that we’ve out sourced everything to interrogation, which means torture is a cost-plus enterprise, I think you can see a complete spiritual bankruptcy to this whole neo-con movement. It’s a nightmare beyond anything you can really imagine.”
Maher asked if these issues were just a result of a neo-conservative movement and Bush administration or evidence of a “rot in America itself that is a lot deeper.”
Cusack responded, “Yeah, I do think the issue goes deeper, a lot deeper.”
Adding later, “Some of these truths are so horrible you don’t want to think about that, but it’s just — I mean the gig’s up. If guys who are statesmen on CNN are also sitting on the board and are shareholders in some of the most profitable defense contractors in the world and they publicly make the case to go to war, got to war, then create a new market with the war, come back and speak evangelically about free markets that aren’t free, these aren’t particularly subtle fact and the stock prices jump 145% and their companies are awarded $2.3 billion contract. After a while you have to expose and shame and indict and hopefully convict the participants in this illegal immoral ideology.”
———–
Right on!
Some insightful comments above.
April 1st, 2008 at 10:22 pm
How many Americans had been killed by Iraqis between April 1991 and March, 2003? Of course poor America, as usual, is the victim. How sad…
April 1st, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Is suspect what we are seeing is not so much an uninformed or uneducated electorate as much as a disengaged and disinterested one.
Now… what’s Paris Hilton been up to…?
(Bring back conscription! That might get the mob to pay attention)
April 1st, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Now… what’s Paris Hilton been up to…?
I hear she said we should all love & respect our President, he’s lookin’ out for us all.
Long live god’s own monoculture.
Did anyone else hear that???
Sounded like traitors & terrorists sniffing at my toilet door. Time to make a run for my armalite, I’ll learn them Iraqis not to blow up my Trade Cenna & try an kill me President’s daddy.
April 2nd, 2008 at 9:49 am
What hand did Starfleet Command have in posing the question, or is the Prime Directive being ignored once again “Send the Marines” (apolgies to Tom Lehrer)oops there already here
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Regarding the ‘wisdom’ of crowds, good old Friedrich the Moustache Man has, once again, the perfect aphorism up his sleeve:
Madness is rare in individuals - but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Much cleverer people than me have postulated that the effective IQ of a mob is equal to the lowest of any individual member of the mob, divided by the total membership of the mob.
Sometimes it appears that the same applies to nations.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 pm
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.”
True and timeless… sadly.
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:40 pm
“Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.”
—Noam Chomsky, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, 1997
“One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.”
—George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, 1938
As War is implimented, the wisdom of older generations - who should know better - is too oft buried by the anxious thoughts of losing what they perceive they’ve gained…also, by a growing sense of futility based on past experiences…& the squall of xenophobic-based fear emanating from trauma & instinct…include the crush of conformity…and the encroachment of physical pain that demands one retreat inwards…add the cries of the youth in their Patriotic flack jackets as they crash against the wall of a constructed enemy.
Ever accompanied by the voices in the media who play with the emotions just enuff to cause most moral paralysis. At least long enuff for the War crimes to be executed, the treasure stolen, and for the criminals to make their escape. And the skeleton of the next plot to be drawn up.
Populations too easily confused, manipulated, deceived and muzzled…by the insane suits in backrooms.
And the scary thing is, the suits think they’re rational.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
“One can only hope that we turn the region into a cauldron, and faster, please. If ever there were a region that richly deserved being cauldronized, it is the Middle East today.”
~Michael Ledeen (August, 2002)
…and for the criminals to make their escape