The Assault on Reason

Al Gore has a book out called "The Assault on Reason". You can read an excerpt from it here.

I haven't gotten my hands on the book yet, but the article is a good read. He makes some really good points about the nature of television and its effect on how people view certain big issues. He tells a small story about his campaign against George Bush Jr. where his campaign managers laid out a formula of a series of strategic television ads that predicted an 8.5% increase in his lead in the polls. Sure enough, the end result of the series of ads resulted in an 8.5% increase in his lead in the polls. It is alarming when such a situation can exist where public opinion can be swayed by a formula.

Gore is correct when he explains the passive nature of television where people just absorb the message being given to them. It seems that by repeating a message over and over again in 30 second spurts, public opinion can be swayed significantly. The logical conclusion is that whomever can afford the most tv commercials will most likely win any election. This situation puts an emphasis on fund raising for political parties and creates an opportunity for rich special interest groups to affect the course of government. Many people say that the case currently exists in the US. An excellent BBC documentary called "Why We Fight" makes a strong case for why the US has been in an almost constant state of war over the past few decades. It's an excellent piece of journalism if you're interested in the topic.

As elections evolve into a series of tv ad blitzes rather than true debate, I think most people will get tired of hearing the politicians drone on and on and will eventually tune out, resulting in low voter turn out. If the trend continues, less and less people will be interested in the process and eventually any democracy will suffer.

If you're like me and you've gotten tired of being bombarded by tv, radio, and now internet advertising; and you also wonder how things got be like they are, the BBC also has an interesting documentary series called "The Century of the Self". Archive.org has them online. You can watch them here:

Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4

It's not as series of action flicks, there are no babes in bikinis, and the content is devoid of sports highlights. This series though, is definitely not short on substance. One example is the story of how cigarette companies got women to smoke in public in the 1920's. I recommend that you watch it in short spurts...there's too much information there to really absorb in one sitting. It seems that Edward Bernays, a nephew of Sigmund Freud, is to be blamed/credited with how products and political policy is marketed to the public.


Back to Al Gore...

He makes a good point about the power of the internet. Political parties short on funds to pay for tv ads can take advantage of the technology. People are already used to the workings of the internet and can actively participate in public policy via websites, forums, blogs, and other online publications. I have no way of calculating the numbers, but it seems some really excellent internet campaigns can be produced with just a fraction of the cost of several prime time tv commercial slots.

I could write a lot more about the topic and how the situation affects us in Canada, but I've written enough here already and you can easily do your own reading/research and discuss the topic with you friends and families. The main thing is that everyday people have to take an interest in their country and their governments and debate the issue themselves, rather than sit back and be swayed by television commercials.

Just as a final note of interest, here are some numbers for federal election voter turnout here in Canada since 1876.