Reading Material

Time to give thanks to the internet, which provides lots of good reading material, no matter what your interest is.

For example, via Atrios, a fascinating speech by Al Gore on the evolution of the media in the United States,

"It is important to note that the absence of a two-way conversation in American television also means that there is no "meritocracy of ideas" on television. To the extent that there is a "marketplace" of any kind for ideas on television, it is a rigged market, an oligopoly, with imposing barriers to entry that exclude the average citizen.

The German philosopher, Jurgen Habermas, describes what has happened as "the refeudalization of the public sphere." That may sound like gobbledygook, but it's a phrase that packs a lot of meaning. The feudal system which thrived before the printing press democratized knowledge and made the idea of America thinkable, was a system in which wealth and power were intimately intertwined, and where knowledge played no mediating role whatsoever. The great mass of the people were ignorant. And their powerlessness was born of their ignorance.

It did not come as a surprise that the concentration of control over this powerful one-way medium carries with it the potential for damaging the operations of our democracy. As early as the 1920s, when the predecessor of television, radio, first debuted in the United States, there was immediate apprehension about its potential impact on democracy. One early American student of the medium wrote that if control of radio were concentrated in the hands of a few, "no nation can be free."

The speech pulls together a lot of seemingly common sense propositions into a pretty powerful critique of the state of the media in the United States (and we're not so different here in Canada). Gore's solution seems to be to try and work within the medium of television to try and create a TV station which can facilitate a genuine conversation. Personally, I think he needs to re-read Marshall McLuhan and accept that TV is what it is - a medium suitable for entertainment only and accept that the intentions behind the station's owners, or even the content itself, matter little. Still, even if I disagree with his solution, the diagnosis of the problem is eloquent and worth reading in full.

-------------------

Pogge and friends have been trying to raise awareness of the pending and growing threat from Avian flu. Accordingly, last week was 'Pandemic Flu Awareness Week' ('better late than never' is my motto) and the virus itself co-operated with awareness efforts by spreading to Europe for the first time. If, like me, you know little about Avian Flu or why people are [more] concerned [than before], check out this Flu Wiki which has more information.

------

I probably pay more attention to politics than the average person, but one thing I've never done is vote in a municipal election. Part of that is having moved over 20 times in the last 10 years, but part of it is also just laziness and lack of interest/awareness in what's going on at the municipal level. Apparently, Vancouver is planning to hold a municipal election, and Ainge does us the favour of recapping the Green Party's platform here.

------

Ian's had lots of interesting posts on economics recently at Tilting at Windmills. Recent favourites include this one on the challenges high oil prices present to the Canadian economy, and this one on corporations.

Ian also links to an interesting chart on equalization at Bouquets of Gray.

Speaking of equalization, Andrew Spicer did his own analysis not too long ago. Must be something in the air. While I'm linking to Andrew Spicer, he in turn linked to a couple of interesting blogs a little further back, this one by Rebel Sell co-author Andrew Potter, and this one, which talks about lots of interesting topics, and where I found this nice chart of federal government spending.

That should keep you busy for a while...