I don't know much about ancient Athens, but the little I know suggests the comparison with ancient Athens is either unfortunate or apt or both. There may have been a democracy for citizens, but it was founded on slavery. Jealous of their own rights, Athenian democrats were apparently quite blind to that of the slaves; and I suppose the slaves struck back every once in a while, sometimes in vicious ways which probably convinced Athenians that these characters were culturally inferior, barbaric and had to put in their place.
Might there be something to Doug's repeated point that the American poor are at the 98th percentile of world income distribution? Could that explain the alleged blindness to US foreign policy? Although I note that the opinion poll of students suggests that Americans are, in fact, not that blind.
But really, to suggest that the problem is a lack of information is, I think, stretching it. There is probably greater availability of information in the US than anywhere else; for instance, it's easier for me to obtain pretty raw information about the US income distribution than the Malaysian one. And to suggest that there's greater and more accurate information in Australia, e.g., is, I think, stretching it. I do not know whether there were any reports in the Australian media last year which suggested that the official report on the Tampa affair was fraudulent; I think a similar incident in the US would likely have been picked up somewhere, even in the mainstream media, and shown to be fraudulent.
The problem is that information is framed by US parameters which, it would appear, is pretty widely shared by Americans, and a fair bit by Australians (e.g., the response to Alison Broinowski's op-ed in The Australian recently), Bill Bartlett notwithstanding.
kj khoo
Grant Lee wrote:
>Bill,
>
>Are you kidding? Just because (1.) the US calls itself a democracy and (2.)
>many/most Americans believe it, it doesn't really mean very much. If the USA
>were a democracy similar to ancient Athens --- a "direct democracy" to use
>the technical term --- I would agree with you. But it isn't.
>[deleted]
>In theory yes; in practice, if (for example) the people don't even know the
>foreign policies enacted in their name, then there is absolutely no way that
>they can be responsible. Chomsky and others have demonstrated at length just
>how the flow of information is severely restricted and distorted in the US,
>compared to countries like (e.g.) Belgium and Australia.
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