a roll of the dice

Whether you’re left or right in a conventional sense, it’s worth paying attention to what Al Gore has been saying lately about the state of American - and by extension, Australian - politics. His new book, The Assault On Reason, is no doubt partisan in many ways, but it also focuses on some extremely important issues relating to the systematic use of misinformation, spin, and outright lies in politics, all with the assistance of the largely docile and compliant mainstream media. A lengthy article about the book and its themes can be found here.

For example, on Iraq, Gore highlights the complete failure of the media and the body politic to disassociate September 11 from the Hussein regime:

…if we had a full debate and a full airing of the pros and cons of the invasion that brought out the fact that Iraq had absolutely nothing to do with attacking us on 9/11 then we would have been much less likely to have these troops trapped over there now in the midst of a civil war.

And on the US generally, he has many interesting thoughts on the direction the country could be taking:

Gore calls for the United States to rejoin the international community and lead the war on crises involving global warming, water, terrorism and pandemics such as HIV/AIDS. He calls for a repeal of the Patriot Act, and for the Bush administration to disclose all of its interrogation policies. He wants more transparency in political TV commercials and an expediting of the shift from television toward the Internet as a method of communication.

Gore’s statements can sometimes sound excellent but, on closer examination, prove to be little more than generalised, warm-and-fuzzy liberalism without too many fiddly details. Nevertheless, a political leader standing up for the fundamental proposition that rationality and factual objectivity are essential to a functioning democracy is something that should be welcomed (it’s disturbing enough that it’s even necessary to have such a debate at all). Not surprisingly the White House has already been laying into Gore with… you guessed it, lies and spin, disseminated through the mainstream press.

On the same note, the Huffington Post provides an excellent alternative to the traditional mainstream media. The level of objectivity and critical analysis of US politics is far beyond the majority of American news. Here’s their take on the possibility that Gore (and others) will still enter the US primaries.