The US media-led war on words

Here is a fundamental flaw in a society we like to think of as democratic. Just as Galileo was forced into house arrest for maintaining that the earth was not the centre of the universe, the aforementioned dissenters have been crushed by popular belief and forced into conformity.

Conformism is now the rule, consciously or unconsciously, adopted by a citizenry that is afraid of showing substantive expressions of individualism.

Trade unions, media companies, political parties, farmers associations, green groups, sporting organisations, business associations, shareholder groups, and student bodies (to name but a few) have replaced the citizen as the legitimate political mechanism. We are all members of at least one of them and they have reduced us to a state of passivity.

During the Federal Election and the "war on terrorism", who are the contestants? Who are the most respected or legitimate contestants? They are the elitist voices of self-interested organisations speaking on your behalf. You are their subject. Your loyalty and obligations lie, not with society as a whole, but with the group, organisation or company representing your interests. If you are outspoken, you are unlikely, or at least find it difficult, to have a successful or stable career in your chosen profession.

A system where decisions aren’t made by shared individual participation and debate is blinded by ideology and fails to take into account the society at large. For example, the purpose of trade unions is to ensure a certain level of wages and working conditions for workers. That is their main purpose and often with little regard to the viability of the company. Likewise, company management, trying to make as much money for themselves and their shareholders, will cut costs, which may have an unfavorable effect on the workers’ wage and possibly the effectiveness and ethical behaviour of the company.

Society, through these groups, is constantly in conflict with itself. The working-class vote Labor, while the employers and technocratic elite flock to the Liberals. An election inevitably leads to a leadership representing one side and devoid of responsibility to society as a whole, with productive, intellectual debate bound up in the chains of right and left ideology.

Our political structures – as well as the groups we belong to – censure criticism, encourage conformity and let the reality escape us. With regard to the issue at hand – that of US foreign policy – I will restrict my Socratic right for the time being, and, instead, direct you to a website which contains some of the most damning evidence of US foreign policy (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv).