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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (3326)	1/15/2004 3:05:43 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3959

Lorne and chuck, let us not make an arse of ourselves anymore. We have to elect Presidents who like past Presidents can lift the image of the US. Yes, the US helped the European nations during WWII. But that is your Dad's and Granddad's efforts. What has been your effort, the effort of our generation. As this article says this is a TV generation. Unable to engage in a good healthy discussion any more because they do not know anything. And to make matters worse, they hallucinate into thinking that this country belongs to them only. Wrong. When implanting democracy consult Socrates and Survivor 14jan04 WITH the governments of both the US and its feisty satellite state, Australia, going to the polls this year, the time has come to ask a few tough questions about democracy. After all, infecting the world with the all-American values of fair and free elections is now at the heart of US foreign policy (eliminating weapons of mass destruction being so March and April 2003). But, after all these years as a political pin-up model, has democracy let itself go? And if it's really as contagious as George Bush says it is, should we try to stop that naughty axis of Arabs working on a vaccine? Democracy was invented in ancient Athens and the expression comes from the Greek words demos meaning people, and krakos meaning power, as well as last minute allegations of sexual impropriety – a cornerstone of all great elections. Many aspects of the ancient Greeks' approach to government still survive. Consider the fact that voting was known to have taken place in the amphitheatres used for the gladiatorial slaughter of animals and slaves. These days, the presentation of human misery for entertainment is only permitted within the safety of reality television, but politicians still find it best to conduct their crusades in an atmosphere of fear and loathing. Deputy Sheriff John Howard's 2001 campaign, for example, was run almost exclusively on a "we're about to be invaded by desperate boatpeople armed with starving children and unAustralian headgear" platform. With any luck, another leaky boatload of Afghans will show up round October and he can use it as an excuse to excise some of those pesky marginal seats from the election zone. Viva el leader! Also interesting was the ancient Greeks' interpretation of who constituted a "person" when it came to voting. In Athens you had to be a man, while, in many of the Greek city-states, you had to be a man who also owned land or a house. Of course lucky old white women have now been allowed to vote for 110 years out of democracy's 2604-year history, but there's no doubt that being a rich bloke still helps if you're planning to get into the business. According to the latest figures, only 26.5 per cent of Australian federal politicians are women, with that 0.5 of a chick doing things especially tough. Not surprisingly, democracy has had its fair share of critics - one of the earliest and most famous being the Athenian philosopher Socrates. Socrates questioned the value of a political system that held the opinions of all citizens as being of equal value, believing that people had a tendency to latch thoughtlessly on to popular views instead of fleshing out positions for themselves. As a result of this intellectual laziness, many rendered themselves too stupid to vote. Unconvinced? A couple of years back, American voters accidentally elected a man who believed police officers deserved to be killed and who supported wife abuse. When asked how he'd made it to the New Hampshire House of Representatives without his extremist views becoming known, the Honorable Tom Alciere said: "Nobody asked." Perhaps this explains how Arnold Schwarzenegger ended up at the helm of the Californian economy and why the US itself is now led by a man who has gone on the record complaining that "down in Washington they're playing with social security like it's some kind of government program". Not that the next generation of US voters looks any better qualified to elect its leaders. According to a recent worldwide survey, only 17 per cent of young Americans are able to find Afghanistan on a map, and only one in seven are able to pinpoint Iraq or Iran on a map of the Middle East and Asia. Intriguingly enough, a comparatively whopping 34 per cent know that the island used for the fourth instalment of the television show Survivor is located in the South Pacific. Clearly the most effective democratic model to import to rogue states is one in which elections are incorporated into some sort of lifestyle program, preferably hosted by a large breasted or amply pectoralled American celebrity. It's enough to drive modern-day Socrates to hemlock. theaustralian.news.com.au