From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square…
From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square game board, winner take all. But, what if we don't play the game, make up our own, like Zelenskyy, and call it democracy?
In trial by jury, the judge issues instructions, guiding jurors step by step through the different items of evidence they must consider, asking them to weigh up on that basis which case is the most convincing. This isn’t foolproof—nothing is—but it does at least help ensure that jurors take account of all relevant factors and are at every stage guided by evidence rather than their prejudices.
There are no such safeguards when it comes to elections—there should be, but even if there were it’s doubtful that they would have the slightest influence over most voters’ decision as reason and commonsense have little weight in these proceedings. If the issue were one of rendering justice, chances are it would be more like a lynching or the mob’s trial of Jesus… which was, of course, presided over by a politician…
Passion, prejudice, I like/don’t like his/her face, together with entertainments called “debate” that are more like a boxing match than anything involving reasoned argument—remember that flabby hunk with the orange-peel skin and the strange hair circling around Mrs. Clinton like an all-in wrestler looking for a hold and which way to throw her off the stage?—and millions of dollars get thrown to the four winds… but the political arena remains a largely thought-free zone. Such thoughts as get through have a rough time competing with Big Money.
#
I’d almost forgotten when it was that I wrote of today’s America in terms of the Nika Riots. So I just checked and, yes, it was well before January 6th 2021. In fact it was in January 2017, just after that geriatric Caligula thought he’d been made Emperor.
A few excerpts from my notes at the time. First, from an excellent essay by Amanda Taub in the New York Times of January 11th 2017: The real story about fake news is partisanship.
“In his farewell address as president Tuesday, Barack Obama warned of the dangers of uncontrolled partisanship. American democracy, he said, is weakened ‘when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service, so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent’.”
#
“Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.”
Here, I jotted down: “A mix of video game automatisms and tribalism”. My notes continued:
“In this context, the word ‘tribalism’ sounds all too appropriate. It's supposedly politics that are divisive, but may not politics provide a perfect alibi, the screen onto which people project their hatreds? And, for that, any other screen would do the trick.”
I went on to wonder about the kind of things that can happen once politics have become sidelined by public entertainment. It starts with ritualized warfare but…
“What I wonder is whether the mass folly now engulfing country after country is not a repeat performance of what nearly brought down Byzantium, with Blues and Greens coming close to destroying the city and overthrowing the emperor. And whether, given modern armaments, at least in America, we don't risk something infinitely worse than the Nika riots and the mass killing that put an end to them.”
[Curious. Read this in the light of current events near Kyiv.]
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“…Interesting that our political parties should be distant descendants of the Byzantine Blues and Greens. Violence and partisan support for teams were of the essence, political causes, secondary. Just issues to latch onto as a pretext for a fight.
Thanks for your post. I hadn't read about the Niko riots. I was thinking more of the Italian city republics, local monarchy living in towers.
"In 1277 the popular organization of Padua forbade the presence of the election officials of all sailors, gardeners, agricultural labourers, landless men and herdsmen' and various other categories, including all men assessed for taxation at less than100 L.". Presumably the danger was that the powerful might use them to intimidate the electors.".
As Koch and friends are currently rounding up the wild Mustangs by helicopter on our public lands and shipping them off to Mexico and Canada under horrible conditions for meat, I doubt if we'll see chariot races very soon. On the other hand, bashing towers seems to be a popular way to for an autocrat to start an inserrection. Mussolini used a fire to advance his career, Hitler used the Reightxdmstsge (sp?) Fire, 911 seemed like an attempt to start a war...
The Italian City,-Republics, by Daniel Waley, World University Library, 1973.
From all the responses, Peter, I would guess that America has an extremely difficult lesson to learn from an extremely difficult teacher. Of course the oligarchies can buy their way out of danger, float above the clouds of destruction, playing their supercilious game of chess, or Monopoly, pushing us little mute pons around the square game board, winner take all. But, what if we don't play the game, make up our own, like Zelenskyy, and call it democracy?
In trial by jury, the judge issues instructions, guiding jurors step by step through the different items of evidence they must consider, asking them to weigh up on that basis which case is the most convincing. This isn’t foolproof—nothing is—but it does at least help ensure that jurors take account of all relevant factors and are at every stage guided by evidence rather than their prejudices.
There are no such safeguards when it comes to elections—there should be, but even if there were it’s doubtful that they would have the slightest influence over most voters’ decision as reason and commonsense have little weight in these proceedings. If the issue were one of rendering justice, chances are it would be more like a lynching or the mob’s trial of Jesus… which was, of course, presided over by a politician…
Passion, prejudice, I like/don’t like his/her face, together with entertainments called “debate” that are more like a boxing match than anything involving reasoned argument—remember that flabby hunk with the orange-peel skin and the strange hair circling around Mrs. Clinton like an all-in wrestler looking for a hold and which way to throw her off the stage?—and millions of dollars get thrown to the four winds… but the political arena remains a largely thought-free zone. Such thoughts as get through have a rough time competing with Big Money.
#
I’d almost forgotten when it was that I wrote of today’s America in terms of the Nika Riots. So I just checked and, yes, it was well before January 6th 2021. In fact it was in January 2017, just after that geriatric Caligula thought he’d been made Emperor.
A few excerpts from my notes at the time. First, from an excellent essay by Amanda Taub in the New York Times of January 11th 2017: The real story about fake news is partisanship.
“In his farewell address as president Tuesday, Barack Obama warned of the dangers of uncontrolled partisanship. American democracy, he said, is weakened ‘when we allow our political dialogue to become so corrosive that people of good character are turned off from public service, so coarse with rancor that Americans with whom we disagree are not just misguided, but somehow malevolent’.”
#
“Partisan tribalism makes people more inclined to seek out and believe stories that justify their pre-existing partisan biases, whether or not they are true.”
Here, I jotted down: “A mix of video game automatisms and tribalism”. My notes continued:
“In this context, the word ‘tribalism’ sounds all too appropriate. It's supposedly politics that are divisive, but may not politics provide a perfect alibi, the screen onto which people project their hatreds? And, for that, any other screen would do the trick.”
I went on to wonder about the kind of things that can happen once politics have become sidelined by public entertainment. It starts with ritualized warfare but…
“What I wonder is whether the mass folly now engulfing country after country is not a repeat performance of what nearly brought down Byzantium, with Blues and Greens coming close to destroying the city and overthrowing the emperor. And whether, given modern armaments, at least in America, we don't risk something infinitely worse than the Nika riots and the mass killing that put an end to them.”
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/blue-versus-green-rocking-the-byzantine-empire-113325928/
https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/circusmaximus/nika.html
Over a year later, I wrote in my notebook that:
“For years, the Kremlin encouraged the growth of gangs of neo-Nazi football supporters, employed as the regime’s freelance roughnecks.”
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/apr/24/russia-neo-nazi-football-hooligans-world-cup
[Curious. Read this in the light of current events near Kyiv.]
#
“…Interesting that our political parties should be distant descendants of the Byzantine Blues and Greens. Violence and partisan support for teams were of the essence, political causes, secondary. Just issues to latch onto as a pretext for a fight.
Too many recent events echo the Nika riots.”
Thanks for your post. I hadn't read about the Niko riots. I was thinking more of the Italian city republics, local monarchy living in towers.
"In 1277 the popular organization of Padua forbade the presence of the election officials of all sailors, gardeners, agricultural labourers, landless men and herdsmen' and various other categories, including all men assessed for taxation at less than100 L.". Presumably the danger was that the powerful might use them to intimidate the electors.".
As Koch and friends are currently rounding up the wild Mustangs by helicopter on our public lands and shipping them off to Mexico and Canada under horrible conditions for meat, I doubt if we'll see chariot races very soon. On the other hand, bashing towers seems to be a popular way to for an autocrat to start an inserrection. Mussolini used a fire to advance his career, Hitler used the Reightxdmstsge (sp?) Fire, 911 seemed like an attempt to start a war...
The Italian City,-Republics, by Daniel Waley, World University Library, 1973.