My dear daughter,
I’ve been thinking about problems with modern Democracies.
Representativeness has become an issue: increasingly larger populations have become too detached from their politicians; there is no more personal contact between electors and representatives.
On the other hand, politicians have become dangerously close to companies and private interests, to the point that it’s no longer possible to state that power is exerted by the people. In our country they don’t even need to lobby – the businessman is the politician himself.
There is no space to discuss ideas and long-term government projects during the electoral process, which has become a comic-horror show with clowns, porn stars and celebrities. During the last run they moved to the social media arena, with opinions being controlled through mass manipulation of personal data, digital accounts, fake news and abhorrent memes. It has proved to be more effective than all marketing strategies used throughout the past century.
Misinformation played a key role not just with poor, illiterate and uneducated masses, but with well-fed, well-educated, rich classes.
I notice there is also a concentration of power, at least in people’s imagination, in the figure of the nation’s president. Like a personal savior. As if the rest of democratic institutions didn’t exist or didn’t matter.
Facts have little weight on the opinion of most voters. They will grasp any discourse which confirms their most hateful worldviews, with no reasoning at all. It’s even worse, words have no meaning, they take words to mean whatever they want if it will confirm their twisted worldview. It’s a threat not just to democracy, but to language as well. To civilization.
Tomorrow we will discuss some possible solutions and workarounds.
Love,
Dad
Aspergers Dad 