Beste Henk, geachte collega
Jij schreef in De Groene Amsterdammer: ‘DE DEMOCRATIE KAN ALLEEN GOED functioneren als ze steunt op een goed geïnformeerde openbare mening. Dankzij de serieuze media kan het publiek zich dagelijks op de hoogte stellen van wat zijn vertegenwoordigers, de politici en de bestuurders uitvoeren en nalaten, of ze hun beloften houden, welke fouten ze maken, in welke doolhoven van corruptie ze terecht zijn gekomen. Ze worden dag in, dag uit gecontroleerd door deskundige journalisten die, onafhankelijk als ze zijn, alles in de media openbaar maken. Zo ontstaat de publieke opinie.’
Zie: http://www.groene.nl/2009/12/De_Openbare_Mening
Henk, over welke 'democratie' heb jij het? Ik vraag dat vanwege het volgende: aan het slot van de ongeveer 4 uur durende BBC-documentaire Century of Self verklaart de Amerikaanse voormalige minister van Werkgelegenheid Robert Reich:
'Fundamentally , here we have two different views of human nature and of democracy. You have the view that people are irrational, that they are bundles of unconscious emotions. That comes directly out of Freud, and businesses are very able to respond to that, that is what they have honed their skills doing, that is what marketing is really all about. What are the symbols, the music, the images, the words that will appeal to these unconscious feelings? Politics must be more than that. Politics and leadership are about engaging the public in a rational discussion and deliberation about what is best, and treating people with respect in terms of their rational abilities to debate what is best. If it is not that, if it is Freudian, if it is basically a matter of appealing to the same unconscious feelings that business appeals to, than why not let business do it? Business can do it better. Business knows how to do it. Business after all, is in the business of responding to those feelings.'
Adam Curtis, die de documentaireserie maakte, verklaarde over het huidige democratische model in zijn eigen land: 'New Labour are faced with a dilemma. The system of consumer democracy that they have embraced has trapped them into a series of short term and often contradictory policies. There are now groing demands that they will fulfill a grander vision, that they will use the power of government to deal with the problems of growing inequality and the decaying social fabric of the country. But to do this they will have to appeal to the electorate to think outside their own self interests and this will mean challenging the now dominant Freudian view of human beings as selfish, instinct-driven individuals, which is a concept of human beings that has been fostered and encouraged by business, because it produces ideal consumers. Although we feel we are free, in reality we, like the politicians, have become the slaves of our own desires. We have forgotten that we can be more than that, that there are others sides to human nature.'
Jij schreef in De Groene Amsterdammer: ‘DE DEMOCRATIE KAN ALLEEN GOED functioneren als ze steunt op een goed geïnformeerde openbare mening. Dankzij de serieuze media kan het publiek zich dagelijks op de hoogte stellen van wat zijn vertegenwoordigers, de politici en de bestuurders uitvoeren en nalaten, of ze hun beloften houden, welke fouten ze maken, in welke doolhoven van corruptie ze terecht zijn gekomen. Ze worden dag in, dag uit gecontroleerd door deskundige journalisten die, onafhankelijk als ze zijn, alles in de media openbaar maken. Zo ontstaat de publieke opinie.’
Zie: http://www.groene.nl/2009/12/De_Openbare_Mening
Henk, over welke 'democratie' heb jij het? Ik vraag dat vanwege het volgende: aan het slot van de ongeveer 4 uur durende BBC-documentaire Century of Self verklaart de Amerikaanse voormalige minister van Werkgelegenheid Robert Reich:
'Fundamentally , here we have two different views of human nature and of democracy. You have the view that people are irrational, that they are bundles of unconscious emotions. That comes directly out of Freud, and businesses are very able to respond to that, that is what they have honed their skills doing, that is what marketing is really all about. What are the symbols, the music, the images, the words that will appeal to these unconscious feelings? Politics must be more than that. Politics and leadership are about engaging the public in a rational discussion and deliberation about what is best, and treating people with respect in terms of their rational abilities to debate what is best. If it is not that, if it is Freudian, if it is basically a matter of appealing to the same unconscious feelings that business appeals to, than why not let business do it? Business can do it better. Business knows how to do it. Business after all, is in the business of responding to those feelings.'
Adam Curtis, die de documentaireserie maakte, verklaarde over het huidige democratische model in zijn eigen land: 'New Labour are faced with a dilemma. The system of consumer democracy that they have embraced has trapped them into a series of short term and often contradictory policies. There are now groing demands that they will fulfill a grander vision, that they will use the power of government to deal with the problems of growing inequality and the decaying social fabric of the country. But to do this they will have to appeal to the electorate to think outside their own self interests and this will mean challenging the now dominant Freudian view of human beings as selfish, instinct-driven individuals, which is a concept of human beings that has been fostered and encouraged by business, because it produces ideal consumers. Although we feel we are free, in reality we, like the politicians, have become the slaves of our own desires. We have forgotten that we can be more than that, that there are others sides to human nature.'
Dit is het probleem in een notendop waarmee de westerse mens wordt geconfronteerd. Hij/zij is niet langer een burger, maar een consument in een materialistische cultuur. Dit is het resultaat van een mentaliteit die door Paul Mazer, een vooraanstaande bankier van de nu failliete Lehman Brothers, al in de jaren dertig van de vorige eeuw werd bepleit toen hij adviseerde: 'We must shift America from a "needs" to a "desires" culture, people must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old has been completely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America, man's desiresd must overschadow his needs.' Henk, ik hoef jou niet te vertellen dat het werk van de commerciele massamedia doorslaggevend is geweest bij die mentaliteitsverandering.
Over de grondlegger van de public-relation industrie zei Curtis: 'In 1939 Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud's nephew, created a vision of a future world in which the consumer was king. It was at the World's Fair in New York, and Bernays called it democracity. It was one of the earliest and most dramatic portrayals of a consumerist democracy, a society in which the needs and desires of individuals were read and fulfilled by business and the free market.' De Amerikaanse historicus Stuart Ewen, auteur van PR! A Social History of Spin, vertelde: 'The World's Fair created a spectacle in which all of these concerns were met and they were met by Westinghouse and General Motors and the American Cash Register Company. Company after company presented itself as a sort of centerpiece of a society in which human desire and human want and human anxiety would all be responded to, and it would all be met purely through the free enterprise system. There was this sort of notion that the free market was something that was not guided by ideologies or by political power. It was something that simply was guided by people's will.' Adam Curtis: 'This was the model of democracy that both new Labour and the American Democrats had bought into in order to regain power. They had used techniques of consumers and they had accepted Bernays' claim that this was a better form of democracy. But in reality the World's Fair had been an elaborate piece of propaganda designed by Bernays for his clients, the great American corporations. Privately Bernays did not believe that true democracy could ever work. He had been profoundly influenced in this by his uncle's theory of human nature. Freud believed that individuals were not driven by rational thought but by primitive unconcious desires and feelings. And Bernays believed that this meant it was too dangerous to let the masses ever have control over their own lives. And consumerism was a way of giving people the illusion of control while allowing the responsible elite to continue managing society.'
Henk, waar het hier om draait, is het beeld van de massa, de Stem des Volks, waar intellectuelen als jij terecht bang voor zijn. Maar daarbij lijk je te vergeten dat ook de Stem van veel Intellectuelen even plat en materialistisch is geworden. In Century of Self wijst Adam Curtis erop dat 'the problem for new Labour was that it believed the propaganda. They took it face value the idea prompted by business that the system invented to read consumers minds could form the basis for a new type of democracy. Once in power new Labour tried to govern through a system which Philip Gould called ''continuous democracy". But what worked for business in designing products led the labour government to a bewildering maze of contradictory whims and desires. For much of Labour's first term the focusgroup said the railways were not a high priority and Labour's policies faithfully reflected this. But now those same groups are blaming the government for not having invested more mony sooner in the railways.'
Stuart Ewen, die de vercommercialisering van de politiek intensief bestudeerde, stelt dan ook het volgende: 'It is not the people who are in charge, but that the people's desires are in charge. The people are not in charge, the people exercise no descion making power within this environment. So democracy is reduced from something which assumes an active citizenry to something which now increasingly is predicated on the idea of the public as passive consumers, What you essentially are delivering them is doggy treat.'
Met andere woorden: wat lijkt op een democratisering is in feite de verdere debilisering van de kiezers en de onmiddellijke bevrediging van hun kortzichtige begeerte. Daarom mijn vraag aan jou: over welke 'democratie' heb jij het?
Henk, waar het hier om draait, is het beeld van de massa, de Stem des Volks, waar intellectuelen als jij terecht bang voor zijn. Maar daarbij lijk je te vergeten dat ook de Stem van veel Intellectuelen even plat en materialistisch is geworden. In Century of Self wijst Adam Curtis erop dat 'the problem for new Labour was that it believed the propaganda. They took it face value the idea prompted by business that the system invented to read consumers minds could form the basis for a new type of democracy. Once in power new Labour tried to govern through a system which Philip Gould called ''continuous democracy". But what worked for business in designing products led the labour government to a bewildering maze of contradictory whims and desires. For much of Labour's first term the focusgroup said the railways were not a high priority and Labour's policies faithfully reflected this. But now those same groups are blaming the government for not having invested more mony sooner in the railways.'
Stuart Ewen, die de vercommercialisering van de politiek intensief bestudeerde, stelt dan ook het volgende: 'It is not the people who are in charge, but that the people's desires are in charge. The people are not in charge, the people exercise no descion making power within this environment. So democracy is reduced from something which assumes an active citizenry to something which now increasingly is predicated on the idea of the public as passive consumers, What you essentially are delivering them is doggy treat.'
Met andere woorden: wat lijkt op een democratisering is in feite de verdere debilisering van de kiezers en de onmiddellijke bevrediging van hun kortzichtige begeerte. Daarom mijn vraag aan jou: over welke 'democratie' heb jij het?
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