Thursday, September 8, 2011

Free Speech and Democracy

Free speech is the most important thing in our Democracy. So say the political commentariat and most others who abuse it.

No it isn't.

When you understand what is happening to our Democracy as a result of our hands-off approach to free speech then you will understand why things need to change.

Tim Dunlop highlights the current fantasy that is "free speech" at one newspaper here. All based on Robert Manne's expose of the antics of "The Australian" in his Quarterly Essay here and here.

The simple truth is that "information" is readily manipulated by unscrupulous and powerful individuals and organisations in their quest to influence your thinking. And their primary method is by exploiting the concept of "free speech".

As Goebbels said "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it". And they do - here and here.

In the case of our media these "big lies" originate with the rabid anti-intellectual drivel that so consumes the far right and the US Republican Party - and is delivered to your thinking organ courtesy of our newspapers and radio and television. See here for an update on current Republican Party thinking. And here for an alternative view.

Low information voters are just not sufficiently "in the loop" in a one sided argument that is pushed at them via our media. There is no "truth news site" - where the real news resides. The charlatans and editors can say whatever they like - all under the guise of "free speech".

This idea used to be called "propaganda" and "brainwashing" - now it's just accepted as a fact of life.

So what is to be done? Well I don't really know but one thing that will help is to undertake an independent and far reaching enquiry into the effect and influence of our media. With the objective being to put in place some effective regulation and reduce the reach of the dominant players.

What we may end up discovering is that our current concept of "free speech" is not quite as important as a properly informed "Democracy".

But whatever the result it will surely become a mammoth battle between truth and lies - which will probably be won by whoever has the deepest pockets.

PS: Big lies - one of the links above points to these "facts".
In summary, Australians believe that the mining sector:
* Employs nine times more workers than it actually does.
* Accounts for three times as much economic activity as it actually does.
* Is 30 per cent more Australian-owned than it actually is.

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