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December 08, 2004
The Power To Destroy
Robert Kaplan draws some surprising conclusions about the exercise of power in our time:
As this is an age in which we are bombarded by messages that tell us what to buy and what to think, when one dissects the real elements of power — who has it and, more important during a time of rapid change, who increasingly has it — one is left to conclude bleakly: Ours is not an age of democracy, or an age of terrorism, but an age of mass media, without which the current strain of terrorism would be toothless in any case.
Like the priests of ancient Egypt, the rhetoricians of ancient Greece and Rome, and the theologians of medieval Europe, the media represent a class of bright and ambitious people whose social and economic stature gives them the influence to undermine political authority. Like those prior groups, the media have authentic political power — terrifically magnified by technology — without the bureaucratic accountability that often accompanies it, so that they are never culpable for what they advocate. If, for example, what a particular commentator has recommended turns out badly, the permanent megaphone he wields over the crowd allows him to explain away his position — if not in one article or television appearance, then over several — before changing the subject amid the roaring onrush of new events. Presidents, even if voters ignore their blunders, are at least responsible to history; journalists rarely are. This freedom is key to their irresponsible power.
Kaplan's article called to mind this rather ironic exchange from The Gorgias. In it, Socrates and Gorgias debate about the exercise of rhetoric:
Soc. And the same holds of the relation of rhetoric to all the other arts; the rhetorician need not know the truth about things; he has only to discover some way of persuading the ignorant that he has more knowledge than those who know?
Gor. Yes, Socrates, and is not this a great comfort?-not to have learned the other arts, but the art of rhetoric only, and yet to be in no way inferior to the professors of them?
The media possess the ultimate freedom (which Socrates would argue is really slavery). With the power to persuade and instant access to the masses, they have no need to ascertain the truth of things. Appearance is all.
And so we have a press corps who criticize endlessly, yet remain impervious to scrutiny or the real-world consequences of their actions. They demand complete accountability from their subjects, yet shelter behind the First Amendment when they are (in turn) questioned. The public's "right to know" trumps all other moral considerations: even the duty to report a murder.
In the end, this means they are accountable to no one. Isn't there an old saying about absolute power?
Thanks to JHD for the heads-up on the Belmont Club link.
Posted by Cassandra at December 8, 2004 08:37 AM
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Comments
If life has taught me nothing else, it is that people listen to the person who says the things they want to hear. As for logic and facts, they can be damned.
Posted by: RIslander ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.villainouscompany.com/vcblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at December 8, 2004 12:35 PM
They will also listen to the idiot who is full of hot air, but knows nothing over someone who knows a lot and is careful with the facts.
This has always mystified me - I've stopped trying to understand it.
Posted by: Cassandra at December 8, 2004 02:46 PM
Well, the tendency for people to listen to a well spoken idiot over a poorly spoken leader would explain the closeness of the last 2 elections.
Posted by: Masked Menace at December 8, 2004 02:57 PM
So, as I understand it, if you match up idiot voters with an idiot candidate, you have a Democratic nirvana.
Posted by: RIslander at December 8, 2004 07:43 PM