Re: [Trisquel-users] Wikileaks how CIA is spying. every Operative System

[infinityfallen]

Although it is certainly closer to a democracy than what's been set up since,  
and much closer than the 'democracy' in place today, Athens still didn't have  
democracy per se (though others may beg to differ with me here). Only  
participating citizens could vote- that excluded women, children, and-  
although I may be misremembering here- those without sufficient assets.

Now of course, nobody wants this issue "fixed" completely- gender and wealth  
are unfair grounds for exclusion, but age is not. However, this is a  
fundamental problem with democracy: in order to ensure governments fairly  
represent of public opinion, we must exclude those who can't reasonably be  
considered capable of forming an informed opinion- and who that is gets  
decided by the government! This is why it's so important to ensure we have a  
reliable means of capturing the opinions of those who are unrepresented- and  
that means is scientifically rigorous investigation. The proliferation of  
reliable information, whether or not it expresses 'acceptable' views or is  
something with mainstream interest, is key to the functioning of a fair  
democracy in so many ways. That's why restrictions on free speech itself,  
excessive copyright, the abundance of weak studies in medicine and  
psychology, and emotion-fuelled political campaigns are so threatening to  
politics. Of course, these pale in comparison to the fact that the only  
stable part of a typical Western democracy is a media-controlled ritual of  
choosing the least unappealing set of policies every few years.