Musings Late on a Friday Night
by Stephen Senter, Guest Columnist
[Editor's note: While this piece was originally written in November 1998,
it has considerable relevance to current events and misperceptions about the
American Republic being a "democracy."]
The United States of America is not a democratic society. It is representational and there is a big difference. To illustrate the point consider a little country called Orwell consisting of three islands - Pacifica, Eurasia and Arctica. The islands are all connected by bridges and together form a country. Each island has 100 citizens. Here are two presidential candidates - Dick and Harry. All 100 citizens of Pacifica and 49 citizens from each of the other islands vote for Dick. This gives him a landslide victory - 66% vote in his favour (198 to 102). But Harry is made President because he prevailed in two of the three islands. Pacifica doesn't like this so they burn the bridge connecting them to the other islands and declare themselves an independent republic. Eurasia and Arctica wage civil war with Pacifica and force them to rejoin the union under threat of total destruction.
They eventually kiss and make up and all citizens from that time forward simply accept the fact that sometimes an idiot will rule over them even though no one knows anyone who voted for him.
Because everyone accepts this representational system they also accept statistical reports commonly referred to as opinion polls. In Orwell, a man asks 30 people (10 from each island) if the flag should be red or blue. 20 of them prefer red. He then reports that a random sampling opinion poll indicates that 66% of the people in the country would prefer a red flag. The president decides to make the flag red based on this survey because it clearly indicates a preference. In reality, only 6% of the entire population indicated a preference for red, and this from a 10% of population sampling. Just how many people contribute to the opinion polls expressed as public opinion in the USA? How often have you been asked your opinion?
The economy is doing great, so don't remove Clinton The corporation made a profit this year so don't remove a CEO who lied about having sex with an intern
Bill
Clinton (left) is to be impeached for perjury. If I hear another idiot ask whether
or not the President should be removed for having an affair, I might commit
a violent act. Ben Affleck just did it on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect."
Why do they not understand? Did I miss the reading of the article of impeachment
for committing adultery? Or perhaps Ben and his friends actually live in the
land of make believe they produce for movies.
The truth is that Ben and his friends must be preparing for a future where there is no consequence whatsoever for having sex outside the bounds of matrimony because they plan on doing just that. Caveat emptor on marrying Ben. Fine. We concede that there is currently no legal recourse available to the cuckolded. But what about Ally McBeal's recent in-court speech supporting the notion that marriage is a contract? Why are there signed licenses and vows associated with marriage if there is no contractual obligation for faithfulness? And why do we prefer to elect married representatives?
Because trust is given to individuals who make and keep covenants. If you never make any promises then on what can we rely? Nothing. If you make promises and divide them into ones you really meant and others you thought were good ideas at the time then its even worse than having nothing to rely on because you got our hopes up for no good reason. But if you keep all the promises you make, then you are a person of integrity and someone worthy of trust. ***
© 1998 Stephen Senter
A native of Great Britain, Senter is a Senior Program Systems analyst who owns his own company and has worked in the computer industry for close to 15 years. A graduate of the University of Waterloo with Bachelor's Degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, he lives with his wife of over 10 years and their family in Canada.
COPYRIGHT © 2002 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.