A Streetcar Named Ignorance
I travel to and from work by streetcar, we call them trams. Any tram is sure to be crowded by a typical cross-section of Antwerp’s populace. Yesterday, there was an obnoxious woman sitting across the aisle from where I was sitting. She was yapping the entire ride–loudly, I wasn’t eavesdropping, the whole tram could hear–to some guy who I think was her brother, some of the stupidest comments I’ve ever heard. And I mean not just dumb or unintelligent, but plain stupid. At one point she was on the cell-phone, explaining to her mother, how the latter definitely had to videotape her favorite soap operas, including the Bold and the Beautiful, Familie and Neighbours, so she wouldn’t miss anything. The image I received was one of total ‘ignorance is bliss’.
Many believe that direct democracy is practical. I agree that direct democracy is the only ‘true’ form of democracy. Representative democracy puts an undue amount of power into the hands of an elected few, and we all know power corrupts. People are inherently weak, it’s those damn selfish genes, I guess. But there is something very scary about ‘populist’ democracy. It simply presumes that everybody is able to make sane and well considered choices about every possible subject: gay marriage, euthanasia, abortion, GM food, patents, drugs, crime, environment, religion, you name it… Without any form of education, or exam, or proof of mental fitness of any kind. The woman I described above, her vote counts as good as mine. It doesn’t really matter that I try to keep informed about politics, culture, technology, science and all, and read books, and try to educate myself many hours a day. If this bitch votes extreme-right–which I’m pretty confident about–she effectively negates my vote. Although I know that my vote will be better informed. But you know what: I wouldn’t have it any other way. Most alternatives to democracy are far worse. And those that aren’t, are described by my wife as utopias.
Since people are 1% specialist, and 99% passing observer, there is a 49,5% chance of making an uninformed decision about any given subject. This evokes images of majority dictatorship. Populism is also behind the broad swing to the right currently witnessed in Europe and America. Public opinion is easily manipulated by fear, and people tend to react conservative, instinctively, it’s those damn selfish genes again. We not only need better democracy, we need better humans. Humans who are able to make an informed decision about anything, anytime, anywhere. Otherwise, our evolution from Primitive Man to Renaissance Man to Modern Man will end at that. We may never get to the next phase: AI Man. But it’s time to be less like Blanche, sometimes we need to be more like Stanley.
