Sigmund Neumann wrote an article, “The Rule of the Demagogue,” that was published in the American Sociological Review in 1938. According to the German Wiki, he came to the U.S. in 1934. He describes how demagogues rely on the existence of democracy, and “the breakdown of institutions.” While twisting the meanings of words, the demagogue become the “substitute for institutions.” Modern demagogues, he says, borrow their concepts and slogans of an “ennobled democracy” from their enemies.
In concluding, he plainly writes:
In an democracy, however, there persists an absolute unwillingness to give up the search for truth and the freedom of choice in the knowledge of good and evil.
Today, we have cause to wonder about Congress’s insistence on the truth. The Congressional Record, is supposed to be, well, “the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress.” But Congressmen, apparently, do not like records of their actions. They change the “Record” all the time. Kimberley Strassel describes a recent change in which a little dialogue is inserted into the “Record.” It’s a dialogue for the purpose of bailing out the auto industry. It purports to show the intent of Congress in giving the Secretary of the Treasury $700 billion.
Sometimes the “intent of Congress” is used to support Supreme Court decisions. Just last week, a case was argued before the Supreme Court in which the federal government argued for convicting a man of illegally owning a firearm because of the “intent” of Congress. Justice Scalia was skeptical about reading a law, not based on what the law says but on the “intent” of Congress.
When law is not based on what is written, but intentions, I have to wonder if we’re not becoming Byzantine. As Neumann noted, demagogues don’t like the printed word–people can think it over and criticize it, and it leaves a record. Sadly much of federal “law” is not law passed by Congress but is enforced through Byzantine regulations in conjunction with interest groups, like I described before in Barney’s Blarney with an “Appendix A” and Acorn. So the Bush administration, like the Clinton one before it, is “burrowing” political appointees into the bureaucracy in hopes of influencing the bureaucracy.
Why can’t we insist that Congress keeps a real record and passes laws that are clearly written?
Sad to say, Neumann may have the answer. He noted an “outspoken bluntness with which [demagogues] advise their henchmen.” He says that they “permit the masses to look behind the curtain of demagogic domination…. and make them admire the efficiency of their methods.”
So who are we? Are we those who admire the powerful and the “efficiency of their methods,” or are we those who persist in “an absolute unwillingness to give up the search for truth and the freedom of choice in the knowledge of god and evil”?
Will we allow that “most decisive principle of demagogical propaganda, the exclusion of counter-propaganda“? Will we allow Pelosi’s “fairness” to be twisted to silence public debate?
Thank you. That was easy to understand, for me, the politically challenged. I agree with you that we should insist that Congress keep a real record and pass laws that are clearly written, and enforced as written, by the way.
PS I think you meant “UNwillingness” instead of “willingness” when you said in a “democracy, however, there persists an absolute unwillingness to give up the search for truth”?
Hey Barb,
Well, there I go again spreading some confusion. Yes, that should be “UNWILLINGNESS.” And Barb, shhhh, I’ll change it and no one will notice….
“Why can’t we insist that Congress keeps a real record and passes laws that are clearly written?”
This reminds me of a Stargate Sg-1 episode “Between Two Fires” on the planet of Tollana. Narim (a character) is more upset that the public records of the Curia (the congress) have been altered than that his friend and mentor was murdered. He says “For the highest members of our government to deceive the people—as strange as it may sound, it’s an even more heinous crime than murder, it’s, it’s unthinkable.”