In today’s seminar we discussed about secrecy in diplomacy and almost unanimously we agreed that secret negotiations can be useful to manage difficult situations of crisis, as the Cuban Missile Crisis showed. However during the seminar discussion a question came up in my mind. Is it fair that the population, and let it say I’m talking about us, citizens, people, individuals, live happy lives ignoring what is going on around us? Is it fair that we are “amused to death” (Postman, 1985), to use Neil Postman expression, distract by TV shows, celebrity gossip, sex, the myth of the wealthy life, and sleazy issues while our governments enhance their interests which often do not reflect ours as citizens?
Personally I would say NO, it is not fair! Secret negotiations are acceptable in situation of crisis but not in decision-making process that concern our lives as citizens.
Let me provide two examples for my argument. First the Lisbon Treaty, how many EU citizens know what does the Lisbon Treaty state? I would say a very little minority of us. Everybody talks about it, but barely none knows how is gonna affect our lives. And let me say that I do not blame us, I would rather blame the governments that are keeping secret it.
The second example I would provide is the secret negotiations surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreements (ACTA), carried by the EU, USA and Japan where anything has been published (Digital Majority, 2009 http://www.digitalmajority.org/forum/t-146371/secret-european-union-mandate-to-negotiate-acta-leaked:fears-confirmed) and which will have great impact on our lives. There are concerns that ACTA may “limit access to medicines, limit access to the internet, give patent trolls free reign and harm the most innovative sectors of the economy” (ibid.), however the public is not being informed about it and negotiations are running behind closed doors, so that when everything will be agreed and negotiated, ACTA will be implemented and the population will not have a say about it. It seems all too logic no?
I’m not arguing against secret diplomacy a priori, I just want to underline that it cannot be the norm. Citizens need to be informed in order to be good citizens, otherwise we will continue to worry about trivial matters, to fill our lives with vanity and leave what really matters in elite groups’ hands, keeping on calling all of this democracy.
Pericle, a General of the ancient Athens, between 461 BC and 429 BC, understood something more than us about democracy and he showed it with this speech:
“Here in Athens we do like this, our government favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called democracy.
Here in Athens we do like this, the laws, here, afford equal justice to all in their private differences; but we never ignore reputation for capacity.
When a citizen has shown himself worthy, he will be, upon others, favored to serve the state, not as a privilege, but as a reward for worth, and poverty doesn’t bar the way.
Here in Athens we do like this. The freedom which we enjoy, extends also to our ordinary life.There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes. We are free, free to live exactly as we please, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger.
Here in Athens we do like this: we have been taught, to respect magistrates, and we have been taught to obey the laws, and never to forget those who have been injured. And we have been taught to respect that code which, although unwritten, is based upon the universal feeling of what is right, and cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
Here in Athens we do like this: we see him who takes no interest in public matters not as unambitious but as useless, and although few are able to originate a politics, we all athenians are able to judge it. We don’t look on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way to democracy.
We believe that happiness originates from freedom, but freedom only originates from courage.
In short, I say Athens school of Hellas, and that every Athenians shows in himself a happy flexibility, self trust, and readiness to face any situation. And this is why we throw open our city and never by alien acts exclude foreigners.” (Pericle quoted in Pietro Speroni http://blog.pietrosperoni.it/2006/07/13/here-in-athens-we-do-like-this/)
(for the full speech look at the Pietro Speroni web site http://blog.pietrosperoni.it/2006/07/13/here-in-athens-we-do-like-this/)
Wow that is a big question, I mean is it fair for citizen to live happily and ignore what is happening around them? My answer is that it depends really on the class of citizen you are talking about as people have different interest, not forgetting that some people may not be accessible to 24/7news on what is going on around them. Also, I think, respect should be accorded to some of the Global south countries where they have a totalitarian regime or have no access at all to information. Is it fair that we are amused to death is a huge question that I leave it to you to respond to that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that you think it is not fair that citizen should be left aside in decision making such as the Lisbon treaty and it is true that many of EU citizens might not know what the treaty means, however, my point goes back again on my first point, does everyone really care of what is going on in politics? I know we should be concern and it might be selfish just not to care on how your country is handling things in details as long as there is a government that is there to defend your interest. But again, to be honest, I know people and have seen many who do not care about these stuff, I mean they are disinterested in politic at all which lead me to argue that one that does not study politics or is not in an political environment may not these things, only student of politics, IR and people that are concerned on political issues that know these things.
Another good point you made that I agree with you is when you mentioned that “Citizens need to be informed in order to be good citizens”.
Good speech from Athens that should be followed.
Camara Thanks for for your comment but let me just say that in my view ususallly people don't care about polical matters because they see they cannot do anything to improve it, or because they see that the situation is so disarranged that they feel useless. My point is that we are going far from what democracy is, and our political classes are not blameless! We are not more involved in what matters, often decisions are imposed on us as top down approaches, then we are granted a kind of placebo, "Soma" in Huxley words, and we keep on with our lives. we feel useless and do not blame us for this.
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