QandO: Down with Democracy

June 06, 2004

Down with Democracy
Posted by Jon Henke

An amusing blindness from Brian Leiter. In one post...

Three cheers for NPR for dissing the pathological liars at the Discovery [sic] Institute: Chris Mooney has the details: [...] "I say let them. Science isn't a democracy, period. NPR needs to keep that firmly in mind as it comes under attack."

I've no dog in the creation/evolution/ID fight, but it's hard to argue with the proposition that Facts are not subject to a poll of interested participants. Unfortunately, in the immediately previous post, Leiter approvingly cites Noam Chomsky, er, citing polls to justify conspiracy theories...

Noam Chomsky remarks:
"Among Western intellectuals, it is a virtual axiom that the US goal [...] is to bring democracy to Iraq, the Middle East, and the world. [...] Iraqis apparently see it differently. ... a poll in Baghdad was released in which people were asked why the US invaded. Some did agree with near-unanimous Western elite opinion: to establish democracy. 1%. 5% said it was to help Iraqis. Most of the rest gave the obvious answer, dismissed with some hysteria here as a 'conspiracy theory' or with some other intellectual equivalent of a four-letter word: to control Iraq's resources and to reorganize the Middle East in the interests of the US and its Israeli client."

Oh, well if a majority of people in an intellectually enlightened region of free press like Baghdad believe it....well, it must be true. After all, if you can't believe people who have been under the yoke of State controlled media, who can you believe? I mean, what with facts being determined by a democracy now....

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