What a pile of crap public perception is.
The public is not the guardian of knowledge. Scientists and philosophers are. These more enlightened people, if we’re to split hairs by regarding them as members of the public, are just that – members of the public, but not the public as a whole.
So why is the public so important? Why is it allowed to have views that so frequently contravene those of the people who know better?
And why is the public given the inexplicably ‘intrinsic’ right to vote? It isn’t as if everyone does masses of research into all available political parties before making an informed decision. You give people the power to make a difference, and their judgement and ultimate decision is made solely on things like
Which party was in the news recently for something bad
Whichever party is not the one that’s currently in power
Who friends and relatives vote for
Adults look down on teenagers for their misguided attempts at managing their lives and for their refusal to seek and taking into account facts when this becomes important. What hypocrites they are.
“I work full time and have four kids,” says The Public. “I don’t have time to do research into these things.” Too bad – if you can’t do it properly, don’t do it at all. Leave it to the experts, the people in the know, the scientists and philosophers who make it their job to analyse these things. Test each individual on his/her interests and knowledge of philosophy, history, geography, politics and political parties, and award the right to vote to those pitiful few who deserve it.
The BBC trialled a service between Nov 2005 and Feb 2006[1], whereby users could download any BBC programme – TV or radio – of their choosing. Anything. The best musical recordings, free educational courses, award-winning nature programmes, ground-breaking comedies. What was the most downloaded programme?
EastEnders*.
- - - - -
* See yesterday's blog.
[1] Oops... link lost
1 comment:
I hope there will be a blog on the further issue of "public opinion".
There is clearly a constructed opinion that the hypothetical member of the public is meant to have, and all policies and directives are regarded against this opinion. Is is almost but not quite the same thing as Political Correctness, but it is evil and always is used to avoid serious debates and stops anyone pointing out the big problems, such as why are scum free to breed?
Post a Comment