QUESTION: How did universal suffrage lead to universal secrecy?

We are overwhelmed by persuasion, but ignorant of the Truth

Listed below are just a few contemporary issues I’d like to know more about:

  1. The Daniel Morgan murder case. Clearly, there is very bad Newscorp sh*t in there
  2. Who shot down MH17 in Ukraine, and the opposing spinners involved in hiding reality
  3. The EU migrant crisis
  4.  Rolf Harris

This doesn’t mean I haven’t read a lot about the subjects; it just means there aren’t enough hours in the day to read the rebuttals and counter-rebuttals that emanate from endless PR spinners and Wikipedia distortionists like, for example, the appalling Bell Pottinger.

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I do know for sure that lots of uncoordinated assholes sleep better at night when they think we’re confused and – even better – arguing with each other about that ‘the news’ means.

24/7 news was supposed to empower us, but it’s obvious now that the promise was just as empty as the notion that more choice of TV channels would deliver better quality television: what we got was more news with a risible level of investigative analysis and far too much God. I put forward these examples for you to ponder:

  • Whatever happened to David Cameron’s rigorous enquiry into a paedophile ring centred on No 10 Downing St 30 years ago?
  • Whatever happened to his enquiry into the fixing of oil prices by American conglomerates?
  • Why are we still waiting for a Chilcot report on the War in Iraq?
  • Why are we still waiting for a progress report on the Met Police enquiries into sexual abuse of children at Elm House in Barnes?
  • Why did the Leveson Enquiry start with a remit to bring tabloid mendacity, aggression and privacy invasion to heel, yet wind up recommending strict regulation of bloggers?
  • How did Rebekah Brooks manage to be charged only with allegations for which there was no proof, given that all 13 million emails relating to them had been erased?

One can’t label these questions as madcap paranoia: they are genuine enquiries based on obvious information gaps. But in so-called liberal democratic societies today, that’s the irony: we are time-starved and suffering from data overload…and hopelessly misled about what the real agenda is in any given circumstance. We read a massive amount of irrelevant facts, but the Truth is only ever leaked.

How intolerable it is that we vote (and pay) for this élite to exist….but have to rely on holes in the security bucket to glean even a fraction of what’s going on. How terrifying it is that the legacy of universal suffrage is universal State secrecy.

Related at The Slog: The end of independent Government data sources