Much has been made (by the americans) about their democratic state. There is a bunch of rhetoric that goes: ‘We separated from England to rid ourselves of the tyranny of royal rule. We brought freedom to Europe and freedom = the right to choose = democracy. We are democracy. And you countries that do not have democracy, you are being prevented from having it and we will beat up those who are keeping it from you. Because democracy is both necessary and sufficient for having a great nation. And boy, we have it.’

I would like to read an essay that makes the point that democracy, in and of itself, is not sufficient to have a great nation. It is not all it takes to be free. There are many scenarios in which democracy alone can be an instrument of manipulation and tyranny.

Take referenda as an example. Referenda, all too often, are vehicles for the majority to oppress the minority. Why do they occur? They occur because it means that politicians don’t have to feel guilty about fulfilling the will of the majority. If politicians do not want gay marriage, but can’t bring themselves to look like homophobic bastards then they simply hold a referendum, and the majority will take care of the problem. Even in less clear-cut cases, referenda are a problem because most people don’t bother to vote… only those who have strong feelings. However, holding referenda makes you look like a great democratic nation. ‘Why should we decide,’ ask the politicians. ‘This is a democracy.’

Ok, so back to the main point: If democracy is necessary but not sufficient, then what are we missing? The answer is anti-ignorance. I was going to say knowledge or education but one is too passive, and the other could be taken pejoratively. What I want is a sense that people are informed because they are informing themselves. What I want is a sense that it is cool to be in touch with the issues. What I want is a sense that people know enough about the question at issue within the democracy that they truly are making a choice about the issue, rather than giving a knee-jerk answer to the question.

Without that, a democracy becomes little more than a vicious circle where the guy at the top tells you what you believe, then asks you what you think. In that scenario democracy brings not freedom, but instead becomes a buzzword that lends authority to a fool in power (at best) or a veneer of legitimacy to a non-democratic tyrannical oligarchy (at worst).

So, if you buy my argument, and you agree with my tacit premise that much of the US has come down with a serious case of anti-anti-ignorance, then you will agree with me that there is trouble in paradise indeed. American democracy, the so-called prize of the united states, is in serious trouble my friends. And if you’re currently sharing a country with me, then we are both bolted to the side of it.

Anyway, I would try to write such an essay, but my last PoliSci experience was in grade 13, and it would take me a month to learn enough to write one now. So, if you know of such an essay, please send me a reference to it. And if it doesn’t exist, well perhaps you got my drift anyway :).

 › musings     2004-11-03 13:34   ...1 comment

Slightly bored late on a holiday Monday night. Feel like writing, but not much really to say, so I’ve decided to just free-associate or something. It’s been a quiet day of doing many things… the long weekend brings the end of the air conditioner for the season, the end of the air conditioner brings the re-installation of the bedroom window, perhaps for the last time here. Paddled the red canoe this aft, perhaps for the last time this year. I’m thinking about getting calendars made up at CafePress.com with digital photos I’ve taken over the last year to 18 months or so, and using them as christmas gifts, is this vain? Is it presumptuous to offer lucky snapshots as presents? Especially when everyone has already seen them on the laptop anyway? Do you want one? Our laptops are getting a bit long in the tooth, slightly gutless for playing the ToySight demo. And what about that US election anyway? Are they really going to put bully-bush back into absolute power? And Cheney? How controlled are Americans by the media? And someone made a joke the other day that “it’s all the media’s fault”… but I don’t think that’s a joke, I think it’s true. I learned that you shouldn’t believe everything you hear on TV. Why didn’t everyone learn that. Or why have they forgotten it anyway? On a completely different note, if we reproduce, will our child ever understand who we (the parents) really are as people? Will they in time? Is that something that matters? In this plastic economy it has become very difficult to give alms to the poor without a middle man with overhead. Plastic, with a slim hole punched in the middle, jammed onto a larger bolt, will hold heat shielding onto the body of your car better than the manufacturer’s clips will. This entire blog entry was typed into vi (gasp) on one single line. I think they should tunnel a light rail line under downtown Ottawa. I think tunnels, while expensive, are a great traffic solution to many sticky neighbourhood-violating issues like the Bronson Expressway because they can allow through-traffic to avoid community streets allowing urban expansion with access to downtown without destroying nice urban village communities which are unlucky enough to intervene — like mine. You can cycle longer than you can run. Jen has never built her bicycle generator. Taking care of plants is a big responsibility, like ants. And another thing, why has September 11th destroyed everything good. I think it would be cool to get married at the Parliament buildings, but now you cannot… you might be a terrorist. Why is everyone so scared these days? Oh, right, I already answered that question above. There are many things I could have done this evening, including work on my model, design the christmas calendar I am half-intellectually-committed to, revise SlimBatteryMonitor, write my time tracking program, find out why my hard disk is full, put real paper photos into a real paper album, clean things, tidy things, dust things :), organize things, bring up the dry laundry, search the internet for ideas about why my car squeaks only when the brakes are not on, run, swim, bike, eat crackers, etc. Why would someone want to lead a government, do we make this job seem appealing to some people? If so, who? Why do I not find this appealing. I think Arabic would be a great language to learn, and surprisingly useful in and about town, at least to eavesdrop on people; perhaps it is hard to become proficient enough for this. It has been several months since I last travelled out of the city. When I was a teenager I sometimes drove to the airport and sat looking at planes taking off, not because I had any destination in mind but because I loved the idea of having somewhere important to be that was far enough away to warrant travel by plane. I repeat, French is a much more graceful language than English, especially as written. Even Harry Potter is enhanced by le passé simple. Yes, Jen’s French classes are going well, and she bought a copy of book 1 in French. Actually they make good bread too. Tasty with cheese, or butter. The fact that the French named their wines by region (rather than grape name) and aggressively prevented other jurisdictions from using the region name to market similar wines grown elsewhere has backfired because the rest of the world had to start naming the wine according to the grape used; now no one can handle the French wine section because we’ve all learned the grape names and those region-labelled wines are like a blind date. Someone is clearing off the bed, meaning that either my iBook, or me-and-my-iBook must be cleared away. I select my iBook. Good night.

 › musings     2004-10-12 01:34   ...3 comments

Sometimes, I become hungry. I must eat the food at these times. Sometimes at these times I have to go to the grocery store for other reasons and it seems like I could easily just buy something random at the store for instant (in the car) consumption along with the supplies I need.

I’m often confused about what to buy in these circumstances. It seems that it is a store full of food (unless you are at the wrong store in which case it is mostly children’s clothing) so I should be able to get something there…

So, what do you all think… what is the best food to buy under these circumstances?

 › musings     2004-10-05 20:10   ...6 comments

Phew. It has been an exhausting summer so far. I feel like I’ve been on the go since I was at Apple’s WWDC conference in June.

There’s lots to catch you up on, and I have photos galore to share, so keep your eyes peeled for a series of summer updates garnered from my memories of the recent past!

 › musings     2004-08-10 00:20   ...0 comments

I’ve been thinking about the differences between restaurant producers and drug manufacturers. Really, you would not expect their liabilities to be that different.

This entry begins with a suggestion on how we should get the government involved in testing food safety with respect to healthiness. It’s kind of fun, so read the complete entry!

Read the Complete Entry

 › musings     2004-03-14 15:40   ...1 comment

This is a stupid system. If I’ve got to spend 8 hours working, why on earth would I select the only 8 hours of daylight?

What would it be like if we could try to arrange our work hours so that we got some daylight to ourselves? Assuming one has to work an 8 hour day, it would seem quite easy enough to swap an afternoon of work for the equivalent amount of daylight time.

For example, I tend to work from about 10 am to about 6 pm daily. A simple daylight-preserving work schedule might be to work from 10 until noon, then stop working from noon until 6 pm, then work until midnight.

Worth a shot? Perhaps I’ll give it a try sometime soon, no more than a few times a week I think.

 › musings     2003-11-19 23:48   ...0 comments

Just tonight, I have folded up the bottom of a Kleenex box and jammed it in between the window frame and the jamb. This has stopped the window from rattling back and forth loosely, causing irritating knocking sounds that would for sure have interrupted sleeping.

I am thinking about what the cave people must have gone through, not having any cardboard. How would they stop their heavy wooden window frames from banging? Not to mention, the fact that they would have had trouble making their boats without it.

Shipping things must have really been impossible for cave people. Without cardboard, most modern shipping companies will charge extra for their overnight shipping. And what would they store old photos and snapshots in without cardboard shoe boxes?

I guess it must have been sheer luck that there are still humans in 2003. Discovering cardboard so late, we have surely been woefully unprepared for the new millenium.

 › musings     2003-11-14 00:28   ...0 comments