Just reading about Hannah Arendt in my free time here at work. Wikipedia is of course not the best (ie most impartial / fullest) resource but it is the easiest to conjure and least suspect.
One paragraph particularly stands out at me:
I am intrigued by the idea that "the majority of people had no role to play in politics other than voting." My first response was Yes this is correct. We the majority of the people are scarcely engaged in politics except for the Presidential elections every four years. Obviously if we the majority of the people were more committed / disgusted we would further a political system that is more representative -- a system of more than two parties so that we're not constantly gridlocked.
HOWEVER
Now that many of society's members have access to social media platforms I think there is this tendency to assume all people's voices can be heard. But I am not sure this is correct. It's true we have the ability, for the most part, to broadcast ourselves and state our opinions in a public forum. But who pays attention? Ktin said ages ago that Twitter is just something Adults do because they think the Young People do it. I'll modify and update that a little to say that young people do tweet but the Adults with the power to affect and popularize -- I'm thinking of CNN et al here -- just do it with each other. Meh I don't know how to explain this any better than just saying that those who have institutionalized power are more likely to publicize the ideas of the other people with institutionalized power, so the young people on twitter don't have any agency because they only have like sixteen followers. Or maybe I'm sucked into the vortex of only believing the media industrial complex so I don't notice the traction and impact of the segmented non-popularized non-status quo groups. Hmm
Then again I may be totally off-base. I didn't know about Gangam Style til like three days ago and hadn't heard Call Me Maybe until we went to Italy in September.
One paragraph particularly stands out at me:
Arendt also argued that the revolutionary spirit endemic to the founding fathers had not been preserved in America because the majority of people had no role to play in politics other than voting. She admired Thomas Jefferson's idea of dividing counties into townships. Arendt's interest in such a "council system," which she saw as the only alternative to the state, continued all her life.[14]
I am intrigued by the idea that "the majority of people had no role to play in politics other than voting." My first response was Yes this is correct. We the majority of the people are scarcely engaged in politics except for the Presidential elections every four years. Obviously if we the majority of the people were more committed / disgusted we would further a political system that is more representative -- a system of more than two parties so that we're not constantly gridlocked.
HOWEVER
Now that many of society's members have access to social media platforms I think there is this tendency to assume all people's voices can be heard. But I am not sure this is correct. It's true we have the ability, for the most part, to broadcast ourselves and state our opinions in a public forum. But who pays attention? Ktin said ages ago that Twitter is just something Adults do because they think the Young People do it. I'll modify and update that a little to say that young people do tweet but the Adults with the power to affect and popularize -- I'm thinking of CNN et al here -- just do it with each other. Meh I don't know how to explain this any better than just saying that those who have institutionalized power are more likely to publicize the ideas of the other people with institutionalized power, so the young people on twitter don't have any agency because they only have like sixteen followers. Or maybe I'm sucked into the vortex of only believing the media industrial complex so I don't notice the traction and impact of the segmented non-popularized non-status quo groups. Hmm
Then again I may be totally off-base. I didn't know about Gangam Style til like three days ago and hadn't heard Call Me Maybe until we went to Italy in September.
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