Tsk, tsk. This is the *High Road* forum. While Al Gore isn't exactly the ideal presidential candidate and it's well known that his political stance is contrary to most users on this forum - lets not fall into the same name-calling and bash the man rather than examine his ideas. We're better than that, gentlemen. And I'd say we're intelligent enough to pick apart the flaws in his arguments rather than resorting to slander.
Gore does make a valid point in that the media of today is lopsided and spews its rhetoric in one direction without provisions for citizens to respond. I doubt anyone here really trusts the networks to provide fair and unbiased information. Where I break from his argument is what he identifies as the cause for this. Both the Left and the Right have struggled over control of the media since its inception so complaining about control of the media being in the hands of the Right is to miss the bigger picture.
Since we all know that Al Gore invented the internet (ahem), it surprises me that he only mentioned it once in his speech and never expanded on it. I believe he did this because following that path would have poked some large holes in his argument. While the internet started out as a military computer network - it's fundamental design was to be decentralized and extremely difficult to censor. From a network perspective, censorship is viewed as damage and data is routed somewhere else. To destroy the internet would require the eradication of every primary and secondary router, then you'd have to target every node. Otherwise the data would still exist and would become accessible the moment the damaged equipment was replaced. This is far more resistant to destruction than say the Gutenberg presses of the olden days. Because of the medium, ideas can now *persist*. Have you ever tried to recall a mass email you've mistakenly sent? Ever realize how impossible it is?
While the internet does have its share of corporate content pushing like television , it is flexible enough so that ANYONE can create their own website, database, discussion forum, blog, etc. The ability to do so is more pervasive than the tin presses the Federalist Papers were printed on and the ideas expressed are far more difficult to wipe out. By the very existence of the forum I am participating in RIGHT NOW, I'd say that avenues to freely express ideas and discuss topics important to America's wellbeing do exist.
So what is the fundamental problem with political discourse in this country? APATHY. Most people don't care. We aren't given the tools to think for ourselves. Instead, we're spoonfed the same drivel in government run schools. Americans are conditioned to be sheep. Sheep are cared for and as long as they feel comfortable they won't stray.
The solution? Question what you're told. Discuss it with others who question what they are told. Then use the avenues provided within our system of government to set into motion how you want life to be. See? The founding fathers were on to something.
