My fellow Americans
are headed down the slippery slope. This poll was posted on my startup page this morning. Note the results...

I wonder what kind of society we live in, where we don't trust our politicians, yet we empower them to conduct assasinations.

Doors of Perception is an interesting site. They even have a blog.

I just finished reading an article called "Redesigning Democracy." It's got some very potent observations about the current state of democracy and politics. I've pulled a few bits out to give you some of the flavor:

"There is a worldwide crisis of political legitimacy," said Castells. "Opinion polls throughout the world show that people do not trust their governments or political leaders. They vote to ‘punish’ what has been done; not because they believe the promises of their political leaders."...

Ultimately, such voter capriciousness only goes to reinforce the fact that the Emperor has no clothes: "Political parties are now empty shells in terms of social representation," said Castells. " They exist merely to win elections."

..."Media politics is based on the the belief among its practitioners that a negative message is five times more effective than a positive one, so the focus is on destroying the credibility of the opponent. This is accomplished through the politics of scandal. This has become essential because politics is so expensive, which means financial reform is impossible, and opens the way to corruption, as an exchange of political favours, even where money is not involved. Parties therefore leak information about each other’s corruption, and a whole black market exists for the traffic of such information."

Corruption is of course not novel; but its use as a weapon in media politics is. "Scandal is now a bigger factor than ideology in the fall of governments," said Castells, citing the fact that, since January 2001, there have been 14 major corruption scandals in Germany alone. "Ultimately, the media is not responsible for this," he added, "even though scandals increase their sales."

..."Since September 11," Castells said, "we are seeing the rise of the neo-authoritarian nation state, as people feel threatened by barbarians (whether terrorists, or, as in the case of France, the ‘enemy within’) and resort to the state as a warlike protector. In the US now, the government is very legitimate, purely through this dynamic; it has people’s support to provide security, even while they no longer believe it can improve their lives."

...Melkert voiced his fear that "money and media are deciding the future of politics, and making politics obsolete." Castells was more categorical: "Democracy, as it is, is unsustainable," he said. "There is faith in the state only as a protector. Self-reform of the political system is very slow as opposed to changes in society....

There's a bunch of good reading here. I suspect I'll be surfing the site regularly.