External interference

And it’s surprising benefits

In the spirit of Project Experimental I’d like to explore something with quite profoundly confronting consequences. My thinking begins with some recent YouTube videos raising the issue of Russian and Chinese influence on democratic culture. But in the process of this discussion I’d like to consider a fundamental question: should we settle for mediocrity?

Vlad Vexler’s animated video explores how anti-democratic influences have worked their way into our culture:

In particular we’re talking about advocates of woke activism and proponents of ‘equality of outcome’.

Are they wilful participants in spreading Chinese / Russian propaganda? Or are they the victims of this external interference? Vlad suggests it doesn’t matter either way. He offers that the real issue is the weakness of democracy. The real issue, he says, is that we lack trust in our institutions, and that leaves us vulnerable to our adversaries (both internal and external).

Anders Puck Neilson’s offers that there are strategic ways we could retaliate.

If Chinese and Russian propaganda exposes western weaknesses, what would counter propaganda look like? Anders suggests a number of topics which could upset any quasi-democratic/tyrannical government, such as the virtues of a free press, civil rights, the right to protest and fair elections. These are the kinds of strategies that compel a dictator to attend to their own citizens needs rather than expanding their empires or destabilising other cultures.

But while it’s important to be aware of the international scale, it always seems to be out of my hands. I try to think locally and determine if an impact is within my own sphere of influence.

Democratic culture has anticipated this kind of situation. Typically the mechanism that moderates criticisms of democracy is freedom of speech. Through gradual social processes, an openness of conversations will automatically sway us to how we feel about our government. The theory goes like this; rather than fight to censor the external influences, we ought openly expose ourselves to foreign interference and let the discussions take place over dinner tables and in the town squares. Those discussions will gradually shape the direction the democracy takes. We each play a role in that process.

Foreign interference, contains a kind of in-depth criticism essential to strengthen our beliefs in our culture. Because of the ways we take criticism it takes some time for the real message to be distilled and decoded. We’re also stubborn creatures, so we hold on to old beliefs far longer than we should sometimes. But if we take a moment when we encounter criticism, rather than react immediately, maybe there are things we can learn.

Polarisation threatens to shut down these social processes. If the topics of discussion become too hot, it can seem like the social processes have reached a dead end. It seems like we must introduce censorship to maintain democracy, that the open discussion is threatening stability. But democratic theory says no. To censor is to let in a little bit of tyranny and skirt the edges of that slippery slope. It’s the opposite. When polarisation threatens democratic stability we need to be more open than ever to what’s being said, particularly about our weaknesses. Those social processes require our patience.

But it’s not without risk. Germany was a democracy before Hitler and the Nazis. Russia was a democracy for a short while before the Communists and the USSR. It’s not advisable to take it for granted that freedom of speech and faith in the democratic process is the solution all on its own.

We must also contend with the possibility that the trust crisis is not the only issue. There are numerous post modern philosophies which deliver a eulogy on modernity and democracy from at least the mid 1900s. It is entirely possible that our trust in institutions has declined because we’ve seen the writing on the wall. We’re flogging a dead horse. The death knell of democracy.

Perhaps it’s not time to throw in the towel though. Lack of trust; the more I mull this over the more it sounds like a symptom of an underlying condition. Why treat the symptoms when it’s best to treat the root cause. While I can’t offer any suggestions, maybe we’ll find the root cause is easily treated? Or if we discover methods of generating trust in our institutions there’s no reason for thinking democracy is on her last legs.

As we come around to a conclusion, let’s take a step back. Adversaries will meddle. It’s their job to sew disunity. They’re meddlers, they’re imposters, spanner throwers, lovers of chaos. They come in when you’re not home and rearrange all your furniture. And… we need to learn to live alongside it because by doing so it makes us stronger.

In a democracy we neither need nor want to think the same way about everything. We don’t even need to trust our institutions all that much. Even in the face of a pandemic (2020-2022) we all saw what democracy did and it was terribly unimpressive. No, it wasn’t pretty and it was far from efficient and it failed us in so many ways, but still, it did enough. It survived.

When we compare what we have (warts and all) to what others have then we understand why democracy is known as the least worst of all systems. But therein lurks yet another fatal weakness - mediocrity. We need a real imminent threat before the democratic process starts to turn. The way we fumble through pandemics and respond to other serious threats reveals plainly our mediocre aspirations to merely survive. And while we may detest the idea of settling for mediocrity, we might well consider the alternatives and the weighty baggage they bring.

So maybe that’s the question we’re really asking ourselves. Not about how we can strengthen democracy. Not about how we can trust our institutions. Not about how we can distract our adversaries. Although that can all help. Maybe we find ourselves unsure about something more fundamental within our democratic culture: do we still truely believe this mediocrity is better than the alternatives?