Author Topic: Thoughts on Democracy and Discussion  (Read 1924 times)

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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Thoughts on Democracy and Discussion
« Reply #30 on: December 12, 2017, 06:17:30 am »
Only 30 years ago, but I think I see most of what I talked about:


1988 free trade debate:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2653709009

1984 election debate:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2653708170

Observations:

The tone is more formal, boring, "you, sir, owe the people...", but still civil ; Turner expresses admiration for Mulroney's father (patriarchy LOLZ)
Perhaps more substance, or more reference to boring topics;
No rabble-rousing on either side;
The issues described did not all come to pass;


The idea of inflammatory YouTube videos seems absolutely anachronistic, futuristic, even advanced.

So instead of falling into the trap of moralizing, I will say that politics has taken a step towards relevance by making the debate more "entertaining".  The missing link between the 1980s and today include:

CNN Crossfire, the pro-wrestling-show equivalent of panel politics from the 1990s
FOX News
Conspiracy Politics, birtherism
Webbots, Memes, and Fake News

And then we arrive back where politics was in the early/mid 20th century in America.  I am looking fondly back at a time after that, though, which may not have actually existed because there was massive organizational change.

That, I believe, IS real.  The changes that came from the 1930s to the 1960s or so were massive and I associate that with the politics of the era.  Is it 'better' ?  I don't know, but it did set the table for such changes to come in.  By the 1970s and 1980s the pushback was under way.

Now, I think the time has come to build again, to re-engineer government.  Our discussion sphere currently isn't up to the task for supporting such a change, or maybe a complete breakage will come soon and rebuilding will have to happen.