Governance and Split Personality: Part 1
By: Aquataine, Feb 19, 2011
When delving into the highly charged world of Democratic Rights and Human Rights it is difficult to engage with people these days without sparking hot debate about how “Some people are just abusing the system” and others are being subject to “abusive, discriminatory or de-humanizing treatment” at the hands of police or other government officials. Where are the lines between the rights of human beings in one circumstance or another and why do we even bother worrying about this issue at all. Is it not good enough to simply say that the authorities are in control and looking after all of our best interests?
Well perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the roots of the democratic process itself OR perhaps one only needs to go as far as the “Divergence Point” where actual reality split from perceived reality,(more on this in the next article).
We, all in the western world, have grown up with the belief that Democracy is a set of values and agreements, very much linked to our Bill of Rights, that govern our society and provide a cornerstone for our ideas about freedom, respect, security and nation state. Of course these values may be very different depending on where exactly you are from but the basic parameters are fairly universal. One also needs to be very conscious of how many parts of the world have no concept of what North Americans consider democracy , although, apparently Egypt has a very good idea since they just Died for it (wonder how many of Canada’s youth would do that ? A few I am sure).
We are, most of us, quite aware of what are perceived to be democratic values as opposed to authoritarian or dictatorial values but in today’s world of information overload and “hyper-spin” it can be difficult to navigate between the metaphorical meadow muffins of “nationalist zeal” and “pure misinformation” propagated by a consumerist society that is fed by a supply chain oligarchy, an oligarchy that is represented by partisan doctrine and a steady stream of corporate swag. In one round of television commercials you can be told who to hate and “eliminate”, what is the way you should live your life, where you need to be “now” and why you should feel good if you “destroy the competition” with this new product, all the while smelling daisy fresh and having Big hair (excuse me).
The choices to make and the way we make them have indeed become difficult in this day and age. These choices however may be more important now than in nearly any other time in history. The divergence of many disparate ideologies and points of view in so many areas of our lives, from economic dependencies to social obligations, has set the stage for a kind of global schism that looms dark on many horizons. People today are unsure about how to best proceed forward into the 21st century and what will be the consequences of our current path. If we avoid paying the true cost on what we buy today our kids will have to pay tomorrow but if we pay the full cost today, or even half of it, we will suffer hardship and our Quarterly Earnings Report may not please “key” people, from the Director of Personnel to the Landlady. If we dump one political leader for another will the next one be better or worse and are we better with the devil we know.
Well, perhaps we need to figure out if we really “know” what we know about the devil or anything else. Since much of what we know depends on what we have been told then we need to evaluate the sources of the info and the validity of that info and to do that we need to have access to that information (intel). There is TONS of “intel” out there but can we get access to the whole, un-redacted, lot or just “chosen” parts. Surely for the enactment of true “firean” democracy we, the voting public or our representatives (which includes the press and the political opposition), must have access to the relevant information in a timely fashion.
Here is one of the critical areas where the democratic process is breaking down in today’s society from
Baghdad to
London , from
Washington to
Ottawa. The access to the real information or even to the agencies that hold that information is becoming further and further removed from those who have the right to know it.
Government’s are denying access, departments are being enclosed in shrouds of silence and voices who speak out about said information are stifled either legally, by slap suits and malicious prosecutions, or often technologically via computer attacks such as the Bank of America is currently perpetrating on the publishing organization Wikileaks and it’s affiliates. The rats nest of governmental and corporate procedural improprieties in the good old US of A is well known and documented but lets take a look at some the symptoms and causes of this problem in our own back yard.
Canada’s media has long upheld a high standard of journalism, even though this is now in question, and so has rarely done anything to jeopardize the trust they have enjoyed but increasingly our media is being treated with contempt and even aggression by the Office of the prime minister [1]. This trend existed in the secretive behind closed door methods of the Chrétien government but even he himself acknowledged the need for the press, allowed it to operate and even hammed it up for the media on occasion. Our current government however has systematically closed media access to not just ministers but to whole departments and many committees [2]. Statements to press officials have been restricted down to short sound bites, scripted announcements and/or verbal sparing matches designed to aggravate and obfuscate any true question and answer OP’s. This is happening to the point where only a small handful of ministers are allowed to speak in camera and these are ministers who are very obviously chosen for their ability to agitate, stonewall, bafflegab and speak the strict party line. A whole new cadre of tactics is now being employed to silence debate and sideline the function of our parliamentary democracy including “slap suits” and muzzled Access to Information Act requests,[3]. For our western style democracy to function at all it is vital that we return to the former practices of free press and open parliament. We should not have to rely on the covert practices of whistle-blowing hubs like Wikileaks to get to the truth especially when our governments are so vocal about supporting “open and transparent” governance. How can they think they have any credibility when they say that and instead act as they do? When they enact HUGE historic trade agreements like CETA or the SPP, rush head long into “Continental Mergers” of nations or massive tax payer funded corporate bail outs all done without any public scrutiny or credible media coverage or national referendums. Many countries are now at risk of having their very sovereignty put at risk, not to mention the democratic values our forefathers died for, by powerful decisions and agreements being made behind closed doors. This assault on our way of life has to stop. It is time our politicians and their controllers took the electorate seriously and gave them some respect. As a famous “founding father” once said;
"A Government should be scared of it's people, not the other way around". Thomas Jefferson It is definitely a new “harder” world we live in these days in many ways. When we look back on the naïve workings of politics in days gone by and the outspoken idealistic characters that stood for office it is not hard to see a contrast and perhaps pine a bit for when times were simpler. We are however instead on the cusp of a very ruthless, desperate and “closed” era in politics. I am talking about an era when most decisions are made behind closed doors and far removed from even the ideals we espouse let alone the actual “local” representatives we elect to office. Those decisions are now being decided outside the realm of democratic Parliamentary Debate and instead being made more frequently in the boardrooms of Multi-national companies and huge lobby organizations like the CCCE or the Frazer Institute. It seems today that the overwhelming criteria that must be addressed is; is a decision in the best financial interest of the economy (read; corporate structure) as if the economy is the one thing that best serves all? Well, is it? Is the financial well being the state and the individual more important than all other things and should it be? Will the country survive if those “entities” that are too big to fail actually do fail? Will societies survive when the current failed “fiat” currency systems fall into decline? Can humans still be happy if they don’t HAVE all the spoils that control our very existence today and to which we all owe not only our futures but our children’s futures as well? (See the counter on the side bar to see our current national dept).
The time is coming when each one of us will have to answer this question and live with the consequences. To answer those questions we will need to educate ourselves and that is going to require effort and willingness. Do you have what it takes and will you and your family be prepared? To answer those questions we will also need access to the information to base those answers on and one of the most important things we can all do right now is take steps to ensure that access to correct information is protected. We can in turn do that by standing up, speaking out and demanding that our politicians, our media and our fellow citizens respect that right to knowledge and the free flow of information, in essence, that free flow of Democracy.
Part two will delve into the ways we as citizens are being denied of the truth and how that delusion is being perpetrated so stay tuned.
All the best for now, Aquataine.
References;
or this little gem that has since vanished from the SUN’s original postings but I found on this obscure military blog;
[2] –
-or this telling comment on how the Prime Minister feels about the press’s place in a democracy “unfortunately the press gallery has taken the view they are going to be the opposition to the government."
[3] –
Governance and Split Personality: Part 1
